As seen in today’s New York Times:
An automated voice at the other end of the telephone line asks whether you believe that judges who “push homosexual marriage and create new rights like abortion and sodomy” should be controlled. If your reply is “yes,” the voice lets you know that the Democratic candidate in the Senate race in Montana, Jon Tester, is not your man.
The Ohio-based conservatives behind the new campaign, who include current and former Procter & Gamble managers, say the automated system can reach vast numbers of people at a fraction of the cost of traditional volunteer phone banks and is the most ambitious political use of the telemarketing technology ever undertaken.
But critics say the automated calls are a twist on push polls — a campaign tactic that is often criticized as deceptive because it involves calling potential voters under the guise of measuring public opinion, while the real intent is to change opinions with questions that push people in one direction or the other.
All’s fair in love, war, and politics, it seems. Considering that I dislike push polling, and I loathe automated calls almost as much as I detest spam…what I think of the practice reported on is best left unwrtitten.
However, isn’t it interesting that politicians exempted themselves and their causes from the various anti-robocall and do-not-call-list laws….