Push Poll Calls
It seems that recently there has been an increase in what I will call dirty Push Poll Calls. These Push Poll Calls involve someone calling you saying that they want to ask you some questions for a political poll while at the same time using the time to push negatives about a candidate. For instance one caller accused Obama of being a Muslim operative. Another caller said tall tales about Mitt Romney's beliefs. No one is saying who is doing it. What are your thoughts? Have you received such a call?
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 3231 100%
I have received a couple, just recently. I really hate the tactic. I only got asked a couple of questions, and they were generic. The person didn't actually care my opinion, he wanted to get in the negatives about the other person. I had the same two, one about Romney and one about Obama. I was really disturbed by both of them, which fed on negative stereotypes regarding muslims and mormons. They essentially were trying to denigrate Romney based on false beliefs about Mormons, and the same to Obama based on false beliefs about and that he is Muslim. I don't know who is doing it, but I'm fairly sure its against the law. Defamation of character if I had to make the call.
Utah firm hired to smear Romney?
Reports surfaced that telephone "push polls," purported by some to have been done by Western Wats interviewers, were attempts to plant negative views of Mitt Romney in critical presidential primary states. But, without acknowledging a role in the survey, Western Wats' own Web site points readers to another term: "message testing." On Nov. 11, at least 16 people in New Hampshire and Iowa, states with early presidential primaries, participated in 20-minute phone surveys about the election and candidates. Critics labeled the surveys "push polls."
Ref. https://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695230357,00.html