Ambiguous Question Wording and Irresponsible Reporting

Here's a recent post from the Monkey Cage blog that brings together two polling problems we've discussed in class recently in its criticism of a recent Gallup poll report: wording poll questions ambiguously (in this case, by asking respondents about government promotion of "traditional values"), so that too much is left up to the interpretation of individual respondents, and reporting on poll results in a way that overstates their findings. In related news, this post on the Washington Post's "Behind the Numbers" blog highlights the importance of comparing different polls on the same topic (in this case, abortion) before drawing hasty conclusions about critical shifts in public opinion.