By not focusing on respondents' party affiliations, the news media are failing to fully explain the significance of opinion surveys.

There's lot more to polls than just numbers
Meg Kreikemeier, Chicago Tribune Original Article

In early October 2004, Newsweek released a poll immediately after the first presidential debate, which showed a dramatic shift in public opinion in favor of John Kerry. Did Kerry narrow the gap with his debate performance? Was he really the closer that many in the media had suggested he was? Newsweek was basing its headline "The Race is On" and accompanying story on a comparison between its two most recent polls. The problem, though, was that the polling data was inconsistent.