No Subject

["Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com>]

rishab@dxm.ernet.in says:
> 
> > "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich
> > Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of
> > phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps.
> > When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it."
> 
> Reminds me of the hilarious "How to lie with statistics". What 1000
> Americans?  The sort who read Time magazine? These are probably much
> more likely to be against Clipper anyway. Any Joe 6-packs? Probably
> not.

You are displaying not inconsiderable ignorance about Time magazine
and about such polls.  "Time" isn't terribly highbrow -- we aren't
talking "The Economist". Furthermore, Time/CNN polls are random sample
phone polls conducted by random sample by a fairly prestigious polling
company and simply stuck with the Time/CNN "brand name". Those polled
would not have been "Time" readers. Although you are correct in your
later assertion that the information may have been presented in a
slanted manner, it is likely that the sampling and statistical
techniques were rigorous.

Perry