Straightening Out the Press

Will the Next Reporter Just Shut Up Already?

The Des Moines Register just got slapped with a lawsuit from Donald Trump. soon-to-be president. Why? Because they published the results of a poll conducted by a firm owned by J Ann Selzer, a longtime pollster and director of a long-trusted survey known mostly as “the Iowa poll.” So what happened?

Well, her most recent work, released on Nov. 2, was not exactly accurate, especially by comparison to her previous work. Selzer had a reputation for having somewhat outsize influence on presidential races, having correctly anticipate the outcomes of presidential voting for many cycles. That is not to say her numbers have always been perfect. She missed in the Kerry-Bush poll, but not by a huge margin, for example. Her polling company dives deep into the demographics, letting readers know the likelihoods of ages and genders and incomes of likely voters.

This time, her polls showed that Kamala Harris was likely to lead Donald Trum 47 points to 44 in Iowa, primarily because women were upset by Donald’s stance on women’s issues. Instead, Trump knocked Harris off that lead by more than 13 points.

But again, what’s with the lawsuit and why does that matter?

Well, it matters only because The Donald thinks it was personal, intentional.