Why Political Journalists Shouldn’t Report on Internal Polling

August 10, 2015 — Thomas Patterson, acting director of the Shorenstein Center and Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, was quoted in a Columbia Journalism Review article about the pitfalls of relying on polling numbers provided by campaigns.  “Internal polling is ‘being reported more often because it’s really easy journalism,’ said Patterson. ‘In this environment when people are trying to crank out a lot of stuff, sometimes they do it. It’s almost always unfortunate.’” Read more…