The polls found a Gore upsurge and then a Gore lead. And now Bush is getting the better of the coverage as the polls have shown him drawing up even with Mr. Gore and then going ahead. Oh, certainly, the media were doing their own research, talking to a lot of people, gaining their own slant on things - or at least trying to do so. But the media tend merely to corroborate what they are learning from the polls. Indeed, it is often their own pollsters, like those used by The New York Times and The Washington Post, that reporters will rely on as their indicators of how the race is going.
Reporters know their own weakness.
They know they have to base their stories on relatively few interviews. Most reporters that I know are very diligent and do a lot of digging. But I can understand why reporters will turn to the polls for guidance, particularly those they believe to be reliable, produced by experienced and highly regarded pollsters. I find myself turning again and again to pollster John Zogby for insight on the New York and national races, with no apologies. I'm not out and around the country these days, making my own judgments from interviews.