John “I am a patriot” Zogby

Among the delights of being an afternoon “soccer-pop”, ferrying my son about, is listening to Hugh Hewitt on the car radio. Today, Hugh had John Zogby on for an interview. My prior posts on the unreliability of the Zogby poll of soldiers and Marines in Iraq are here and here.

Hewitt’s lawyerly ways results in depositions that, as those who have ever sat through one will attest, often result in truths the deposed would rather not reveal. Unlike legal depositions, however, John Zogby refused to answer some questions and, when pressed, declared:
“I am a very patriotic American, and did a poll objectively...”

Soon after, John Zogby hung up and terminated the interview, ending the deposition.

Fortunately for the American jury there are additional public records to consider as to whether to have confidence in the Zogby poll that the majority of soldiers and Marines are negative toward U.S. troops remaining in Iraq beyond the year.

Further research reveals further corroboration for the main methodological reasons to suspect the poll in my previous posts.

John Zogby may, indeed, be a “patriot”, but one wouldn’t know that from the business ethic of the accountant’s joke about which results do you want to pay me to show. The profit motive may be American to some, but that's hardly enough.

Zogby has been roundly criticized from the Left and the Right for his prior bought polls. For instance, his work for the libertarian free-market Cato Institute on the question of private accounts within Social Security was shown duplicitous, leading and ignoring of contradictory data. For instance, his work for the union’s anti-WalMart organization failed to note his prior tens-of-thousands-of-dollars pay from them to be an expert witness against WalMart.

Mystery Pollster, himself liberal and expert in polling, commented on the WalMart case:

There is an important ethical question raised here, but one not quite as dramatic nor as theoretically damaging to this particular poll. It involves Zogby's habit of conducting polls for both mainstream media outlets and political interest groups. Mowbray is probably right to assume that WakeUpWalMart hired Zogby because of his "extra panache and an air of instant credibility of his reputation." That reputation comes as result of his high profile media polls. Consumers of Zogby's media-sponsored surveys have the right to ask whether his work for private interests clouds his objectivity.

The answer has emerged to my question where a small liberal arts colleges partisan Peace studies department got the big bucks for Zogby’s “poll” of the U.S. military in Iraq.

Zogby said the poll was commissioned by a wealthy war opponent, whom he would not name. Zogby said the man “had no input into the questions or analysis and was not trying to make a point.”

Buy that and I have another bridge for sale.

Mystery Pollster, today, continues his fisking of Zogby’s methodology with another revelation of the role played by the leftist Le Moyne Center for Peace and Global Studies:

In my experience – and I have “developed” hundreds of questionnaires over the years – anyone with the right to request changes and approve a final questionnaire is an integral part of the development process.

John Zogby, you can hang up on Hugh Hewitt, but you can’t hang up on your sleazy polling rep. John Zogby’s polling lacks elemental professional credibility.