It’s not a poll

The Herald reports:

Migrant groups aren’t convinced New Zealand is a racist country, despite a new poll indicating overwhelmingly that it is.

Actually it does no such thing.

Seventy-six per cent of responses gathered by TV3’s The Vote on Wednesday night agreed with the proposition that New Zealand was racist.

That is not a poll. It is a meaningless self-selected sample. The results are in no way representative of the NZ population. It is representative of people who wanted to see a debate on TV3 about if NZ is racist and felt strongly enough to vote on it in their online survey.

There is a place for reporting unscientific surveys such as blog and online polls. But they should never ever be treated as representing NZ public opinion – let alone the basis for an entire news story.