phone-survey

So yesterday I did something I rarely do…  I picked up my ringing landline phone at home, even though the caller ID was unclear about who was calling. I’m glad I did, because I think I got to skew a conservative, oil-industry survey.

I’m pretty sure I was speaking with a woman in a call center somewhere in India. Her accent was pretty thick, and I had to ask a couple of time for her to repeat what she said. Except for the language barrier, the survey went pretty well. For me, anyway. I’m sure whoever sponsored the call isn’t going to be happy with my responses.

They tried to mix it up a bit, by including questions on abortion, marriage equality (which they called gay marriage), and environmental issues. It didn’t take long, however, to realize they were mostly interested in oil-industry issues. A lot of questions about government regulation of gas, oil, and fracking. There was even one asking if I thought it was acceptable to use fracking waste water to irrigate food crops. That one was easy. Geez!

I noticed some heavy bias in the way questions were presented, trying to elicit responses more favorable to whoever sponsored the survey (and they didn’t make very clear who it was, other than ‘not by a political party or candidate’, but I could tell the industry, if not the funder.)

I wonder if more people like me were included in the question pool, but I suppose they were going on regional demographics, and my responses will probably barely tick the scoring. I hope for more than that, but, I do what I can.

At least they didn’t just hang up on me, like the one a few days ago about a woman’s right to choose her reproductive status.

That’s progress, right?