Colbert Report

In tonight's Colbert Report we see why Stephen Colbert is a master at what he does and why he has such a large following.

He was talking about polls, what they are and how they are reported and have us a great visual aid. He compared the opinions of the public to meat and the polling process to a meat grinder that chews up all the data and packages in nice neat sausage casings for mass consumption. Then the media takes the poll results and reports them widely enough that they sway public opinion and skew future polls. Thus the poll number "sausages" get fed back into the meat grinder creating the "circle of meat".

A pretty accurate description of how the 24 hour news cycle has to almost feed on itself in order to meat the demands of all that airtime. A poll is commissioned, the results are reported in the way that best fits the bias of the network, public opinion is moved, and a new poll is commissioned that verifies what has already been stated. Nasty stuff to be sure! It always amazes me that it takes a satirist like Colbert to help us see where our media has gone off the rails.