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newspaper interview every
hour of every day in the face of the constant barrage of criticism, reported
twisted truths, and strategically targeted political advertising, with a smile
and a well thought out, yet candid response? Yes, regardless of whether or
not you believe that a candidate's platform represents your point of view,
or is totally misguided, whether you believe that reforming the government,
being a social democrat, a compassionate conservate, or a new Democrat is
what this country needs the most, we nonetheless must appreciate and respect
all of these men and the staffs that support them, for wanting to make our
country and the world we live in a better place.
The efficacy of polled
information is another topic we explore in our second issue. Many politicians
seem to place a high premium on information that is derived from all kinds
of polls. Some politicians are known to retool their positions/messages based
on polled information. Polls are intended to identify preferences, concerns
and attitudes towards almost anything. As a staff, we have become very discerning,
wanting to know about how big the respondent pool was, what the demographics
were, what question was asked of the participant, how it was asked, was it
asked in such a way as to manipulate a response, etc. Hopefully the information
we share in this article will accomplish at least two things: a) create an
awareness that we need to be more discriminate in believing what polls supposedly
tell us - it's not always accurate information; b) we hope to inspire those
that conduct polls and the media that reports the information, to be more
responsible in giving us all of the information that would substantiate what
the poll was intended to discover.
I, too, need to be accurate
in presenting the information contained in this issue. I would totally misconstrue
the truth if I indicated that interviewing politicians represented the greatest
thrill of this issue. Actually, interviews at MTV with the President, Vice
President of Programming and V.J., Carson Daly received the most excited responses
on behalf of my staff. And why not? For many millions of teens, "TRL"
is only one of the coolest shows on television. Tom, your support and belief
in the goals of TeenSpeak have actualized many staff members'; dreams,
for which my thanks here are inadequate.
America is about competition,
whether you are Carson Daly or former Senator Bill Bradley, Governor George
W. Bush, Vice President Al Gore, or Senator John McCain. In our society, we
are unfortunately very critical, and it seems that any one of us are only
as good as our last tap dance. There is, however, no tougher ground to claim
than the position of President of the United States. As we continue to watch
the candidates, it is my hope that we won't |
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