Karen Wolfe: Was This Eli Broad’s Push Poll?
Karen Wolfe is a public school parent in Los Angeles. a friend of hers received what sounds like a “push poll.” A push poll is a telephone call that begins by asking innocent questions but then turns into advocacy for an issue or a candidate. You assume it is a poll, but it is actually an effort to shape your opinion.
Wolfe writes:
“Are pollsters calling Los Angeles residents to shape opinion about Eli Broad’s Privatization Plan?
“It sounds that way. One teacher, I’ll call her Ms. R, asked yesterday in a facebook group, “Did anyone else in the LA County area get that ‘research gathering’ call about charter schools?”
“Ms. R gave me permission to share the details of the call.
“She was asked which of 12 issues was most pressing to her.
Ms. R answered ‘infrastructure’ because, she said “I live downtown and the roads need a lot of work. Then BOOM, a question about my opinion of Eli Broad.”
Then about the union.
She then listened to several misleading statements like, “Charter schools with donors like Eli Broad will be able to raise money for charter schools so students have more access to arts programs which are being cut from public schools,” and was asked, “After listening to these opinions about charter schools, are you more likely or less likely to support the increase of charter schools in LA County?”
“I actually told the lady these questions offended me. But it was designed to get me to say I would be more likely to support the charter school increase. ‘I think they are info gathering in order to justify the push.’”
“At least 5 statements, I was so pissed I said something about it out loud to the woman. There was one point where she typed why I was against charters word for word. She read it back to me and kept messing up where I had to correct her a few times to make it make sense.”
Ms R finished,“AND I was told the session may be recorded for quality purposes.”
Whose quality?”Karen Wolfe: Was This Eli Broad’s Push Poll? | Diane Ravitch's blog:
