Leslie Newell Peacock of The Arkansas Times displays her reputation as a “shoot first, ask questions later” reporter today.

Instead of calling to ask for more information, Leslie simply embarked in some character assassination on the Times blog when a simple phone call would have answered a few concerns.

She's questioned the methodology of our latest Talk Business Poll on the U.S. Senate primary races, which you can view here and here.

The databases we used to conduct our poll are the primary voter databases provided by the Democratic and Republican parties of Arkansas to candidates and campaign organizations. They are well-groomed frequently by the parties and used by D and R candidates to provide the best voter information available.  Every credible poll uses this universe of data.

So let’s answer Leslie’s amateur questions:

A) Were respondents registered voters?  Yes.  They wouldn’t have been in the database if they weren’t.

B) Were they Republican or Democrat?  They wouldn’t be in the party databases otherwise.

C) Did they live in Arkansas?  See above.

Why were these questions not asked of voters when they were polled? It's a waste of time. We already know their voting propensity.

Well, wouldn’t that allow for someone to lie about their identity, especially since its an automated poll?  That could happen in any poll. 

If a live caller or an automated call reaches a voter in these databases, the person on the other line could answer any question as honestly or as dishonestly as they choose.

If I were to ask someone if they were a registered voter - live and in person - could they lie to me?  Certainly.  How would I know?  I wouldn’t.  And neither would an automated call.

Kudos to Leslie for taking the bait of whoever raised these easily answered questions, but shame on her for not doing some easy homework - like any good reporter would do.

Shooting the messenger on a poll that shows Lincoln in trouble with Democrats is to be expected from a campaign operative, not from a reporter.

As a matter of fact, some people call that “bullshit.”