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Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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Who Can You Believe?

November 11th, 2008 • Richard Cochrane
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Most Say Mainstream Media Biased — Pollsters Join Bias Bunch

A majority of Americans believe media coverage attempted to influence the election for Barack Obama. On Monday the ombudsman for the Washington Post admitted the newspaper’s political coverage was heavily biased to elect Barack Obama.

Now comes a Fordham University Analysis by its Department of Political Science of the 20-major pollsters that appears to confirm he same bias by media to manipulate polling data to influence the election.

The Fordham University Analysis ranks the 20 leading pollsters in order of performance.

1. Rasmussen (11/1-3)**

1. Pew (10/29-11/1)**

2. YouGov/Polimetrix (10/18-11/1)

3. Harris Interactive (10/20-27)

4. GWU (Lake/Tarrance) (11/2-3)*

5. Diageo/Hotline (10/31-11/2)*

5. ARG (10/25-27)*

6. CNN (10/30-11/1)

6. Ipsos/McClatchy (10/30-11/1)

7. DailyKos.com (D)/Research 2000 (11/1-3)

8. AP/Yahoo/KN (10/17-27)

9. Democracy Corps (D) (10/30-11/2)

10. FOX (11/1-2)

11. Economist/YouGov (10/25-27)

12. IBD/TIPP (11/1-3)

13. NBC/WSJ (11/1-2)

14. ABC/Post (10/30-11/2)

15. Marist College (11/3)

16. CBS (10/31-11/2)

17. Gallup (10/31-11/2)

18. Reuters/ C-SPAN/ Zogby (10/31-11/3)

19. CBS/Times (10/25-29)

20. Newsweek (10/22-23)

Most notable among them is the miserable performance of the major US television networks that had “error” rates between 57% and 83%. ABC, CBS and NBC consistently announced Obama with a double digit lead.

Once again Rasmussen hit the nail on the head as it did in 2004. Pew Research tied it for accuracy this year. Newsweek was worst.

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