News

The role the Otago Daily Times played in the recent local body elections is coming under scrutiny.

Rumours were circulating wildly around town last week about the nature of a donation made by Allied Press owner Julian Smith to Dave Cull, who is part of the Greater Dunedin party. A representative of an unsuccessful Council candidate told Critic that a donation of $40 000 was made. However, Cull said that is untrue, but revealed Smith donated under $1000. Donations under $1000 do not need to be declared. Cull would not specify how much was donated.
   When questioned about the ODT’s editorial independence and integrity, Editor Murray Kirkness replied in a curt one line statement, “Allied Press did not make a donation to Greater Dunedin.”
   Concerns have also been raised about the ODT political poll that ran on the front page on October 6. Instead of an opinion poll, which most media organisations use in New Zealand, the ODT opted for a cheaper straw poll.
   Political opinion polling is a precise science and many media companies spend big money on research companies such as AC Nielsen or TNS to get accurate results. Pollsters are trained to not ask leading questions, and the sample of who is interviewed is carefully chosen, to represent the population at large. Independent polls take care to poll each demographic.
    Critic understands that the ODT did not employ such measures and simply asked staff in its subscriptions call centre to pick numbers at their leisure out of a phonebook and call them. No training was given. A source inside Allied Press, who spoke to Critic on the condition of anonymity, said the subscriptions staff were given only two questions to ask: is the respondent voting, and who for? “And no [they] didn't try and sell them the ODT afterwards.”
   Otago University Political Studies Lecturer Dr. Chris Rudd said that many studies have been conducted on the impact of political polling and the evidence is mixed. Although he thought the ODT poll was “fine,” he noted that “if the poll is shonky, then just like any piece of information the voters gets, this is 'undesirable'.” Rudd added that if polls have an effect, they are likely to sway voters who are not already committed to voting a certain way.
   Rudd says that the ODT approached him, asking him to conduct a poll on their behalf. However, Rudd was unable to garner enough interest from students to conduct the poll, so ODT took polling upon themselves. 
    ODT Editor Murray Kirkness would not comment on the nature of the polling.