Push Comes To Shove
The Entergy Corporation -- owner of that satanic facility known as Vermont Yankee -- is being accused of employing dirty tricks to advance its sinister cause. Namely the relicensing of the plant which, by the way, supplies around 1/3 of Vermont's electricity at less than market. So the question would seem to be not, "Is Entergy using questionable tactics to move opinion?" but "Why does it have to?"
But ... to the controversy.
The crime of which Entergy stands accused is "push polling," which is just one weapon in the arsenal of those who are selling something -- say a politician. The opinion shapers use this particular device to convince people that their guy wears white and walks on water while the other candidate drowns kittens in his spare time. If you were contacted by a push polling operation, you might be asked, "If you knew that ______ had fathered an illegitimate child who is black, would that change your opinion of the candidate?" Or, "If you knew that the election of _______ would result in the repeal of Roe v Wade and make abortion illegal, would that change your mind about him?"
These, by the way, are not a made-up examples. Push polling isn't pretty.
But if you are going to use push polling to spread a message -- or smear -- you want to throw a wide net. This means thousands of calls. The Entergy poll, it seems, contacted fewer than 1000 people. So even if the poll was completely effective in changing people's minds, we're talking somewhere around .1% of the population. That isn't going to get it done.
And, then, what about the nature of those questions.
"If this wasn't a push poll I will eat my hat," said Marjorie Power, a Montpelier resident who happens to have once been a hearing officer for the Public Service Board that regulates utilities ...
The caller asked if she would be more likely to support a new operating license for the Vermont Yankee plant if she knew the company provides jobs in Vermont, has a security force on the site or makes power without producing greenhouse gases, Power said.
They asked questions like that? Quel horreur.
Hard to believe that mighty Entergy, once it had made up its mind to do a push poll, wouldn't do it the sovereign way, using a big sample and asking really nasty questions.
Of course, in some venues, Entergy will never catch a break.
Entergy has reason to be concerned about its future in Vermont. However, we think it should not have to resort to shady tactics to influence public opinion.
The debate over the relicencing [sic] of Vermont Yankee deserves to be conducted in an above-board manner. It is too important an issue not to be.
That from the Reformer. And now that the editors are on
record, we're confident the paper will be scrupulously fair and
objective in its coverage of the relicensing debate.
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