Jon Stewart has had enough of the midterm poll kerfuffle.
The comedian, on Monday night's "The Daily Show," laid into the news media for its overreliance on polling, often just to walk it back.
"No matter how hard you try, you cannot keep our news media off the poll. And I know they might say, 'Oh, we're working our way through the Electoral College.' No! Being on the poll is a choice," Stewart joked the Monday before Election Day, Nov. 2. "They know that that is what our little reptilian brains are craving. Immigration, tariffs, Iran – we don't care. What's the score?"
Stewart then played a series of clips from MSNOW and CNN, in which the outlets emphasized polling showing Democrats favored in various elections, with Stewart exaggeratedly blissful.
He then shared a clip of CNN's John Berman, who asked, "What if the polls are wrong?"
Stewart stared blankly before flipping out.
"Are you [expletive] kidding me right now? The big polls, whoo, whoo! You can't say, 'whoo,' and then, 'buh.' It's whoo, it's not buh. It's not both," he said. "But that's what they do. That's the media's little game. They prey on our emotions like little rats in a maze, getting that dopamine hit."
Election polling can be a flawed method, given the tendency to overestimate Democratic voters and undersample Republicans, with Stewart airing various clips of the media giving that caveat. "It just feels like every election night we're always like, 'Oh, the polls actually were kind of wrong,'" Anderson Cooper says in one clip, while CNN shows one poll with a margin of error, or potential inaccuracy, of 11% in small print.
"Then why the [hell] are we looking at them? Why? Why are you showing them to us? Why are you talking about them constantly? Why? Plus or negative 11? In the corner? Why isn't that the biggest number?" Stewart yelled. "Or better yet, why isn't that the number that makes you go, 'I'm not going to show this [stuff] on television?'"
He continued, "The rest of us don't get a margin of error. 'This utilities check is for $217, plus or minus $11.'"
He pointed out that polling skeptics have also fallen into the trap, citing The New York Times and Sienna University's "gold standard" polling in the final days before the midterms. But the outlet itself points out that while it may be "dead-on," it could "underestimate Democrats" or "underestimate Republicans."
Stewart then criticized CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten, for trying to "make polling fun," playing a series of clips of Enten using props, including a wet floor caution sign, giant die and foam finger.
Stewart jumped over the desk. "It's not fun. It's not fun. It's not cute," he said. "I don't know if you know this, but enthusiastic bull**** is still bull****."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jon Stewart takes on midterm poll obsession – 'Like little rats in a maze'
