08-04-05 --
Two big media stories hit this week, the Cards moving to KTRS and the KATZ Morning Show disgrace.

Each touched nerves within and without the media community and the Post-Dispatch felt compelled to do online polls at STLToday.com. Here are screenshots of the results of those polls as of 3PM, Thursday, August 4, 2005. What about them stands out? Scroll down for my observations.

The very first thing I noticed was the amazing disparity in the total number of respondents. An issue that involved two idiot DJ's leading a discussion with listeners about "getting over" on police has received a little more than a third of the total number received by a poll about two radio stations and a game. If that's how the readership of a once-important newspaper rank things in order of importance, it's an embarassing moment for the market.

The other thing is the way the questions are worded. Or, I should say, the way one of the questions is worded...

I mean the middle question in the Card's poll, the one that begins "It's a sad day in Card's history". Could it be any more emotionally loaded? And note how the supposedly uninvolved newspaper shoves that alleged "signal problem" out in front. Could the poll have been any more leading in its intent?