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June 26, 2006
The majority of the minority is the majority?
John Grogan's latest Inquirer column highlights the unrepresentative nature of what we often call "public opinion": I caught a blistering earful from readers across the country after I criticized Michael Berg last week for denouncing the U.S. air strike that killed the terrorist who beheaded his son.It goes on and on. Obviously, this Bush-is-worse-than-Zarqawi meme has some adherents, but in the real world they are in a small minority. That's why Michael Berg's candidacy is pretty much a joke. (Very much a joke, actually. Even Democrat challenger Dennis Spivack has little chance against a "seven-term incumbent who won the last election with 69 percent of the vote." Berg seems mainly to be helping the Green Party achieve greater visibility.) I think the kind of people who would write letters to columnists are not representative of public opinion, so much as they represent vocal, hard-core activist opinion. Ordinary people (the kind who vote), most likely rolled their eyes when they read the railings of Michael Berg in John Grogan's first column. They wouldn't even think of wasting their time writing in. Even I -- opinionated though I am, and even though I wrote about Michael Berg in this blog -- never gave a thought to writing to Mr. Grogan. People I have known who are familiar with the talk radio business have told me that actual callers represent a small percentage of actual listeners, and I think the same holds true for blog commenters. On a typical day, a small fraction of one percent of visitors here will leave a comment. Whether a commenter agrees with me or not, it would be a big mistake for me to think that a single comment spoke for most of my readers. Considering the Philadelphia Inquirer's circulation (plus the fact that John Grogan is a popular columnist and best-selling author) I doubt a few dozen letters (or emails) are a fair representation of his readers. Of course, this may beg the question of who represents anyone. I don't think I represent anyone except myself, and considering the arguments I have with myself, I'm not sure I do all that great a job with self representation. I mean, what about that part of me which doesn't argue with me, but just goes along with my "flow"? My inner minority is the loud part, which clamors to be heard -- often over my great, silent, lazy majority, which would rather not be writing anything at all. So my blogger side may not be speaking fairly on behalf of the live-and-let-live side of myself. How do I fairly represent my unrepresented self? (Silence might be misinterpreted as agreement.) posted by Eric on 06.26.06 at 01:15 PM |
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