Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=178875" target="_blank">http://www.marketwire.com/mw/r elease_html_b1?release_id=178875</a> >>NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 01, 2006 -- Nielsen//NetRatings (NASDAQ: NTRT), a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that 36.6 percent of U.S. adults online are Republicans, 30.8 percent are Democrats and 17.3 percent are Independents. With campaign Web sites becoming increasingly important to reaching the electorate, candidates need to keep their fingers on the political pulse of the Internet. The Web site with the highest concentration of Republicans was RushLimbaugh.com, with an 84.8 percent Republican audience (see Table 1). NewsMax.com and Bill O'Reilly.com ranked No. 2 and 3, with audiences that were 65.4 percent Republican. The Drudge Report and Salt Lake Tribune rounded out the top five Republican sites with 59.0 and 57.9 composition percent. Among Democrats, the top three sites were BlackAmericaWeb.com, AOL BlackVoices and BET.com with audiences that were 79.9 percent, 64.8 percent and 58.6 percent Democratic, respectively. Salon.com and Village Voice ranked fourth and fifth among Democrats, with 55.3 and 55.2 composition percent. "The fact that the online population is more heavily composed of Republicans than Democrats is principally a function of the Republican party's higher composition within the overall electorate," said Nielsen//NetRatings analyst Ken Cassar. "This is exacerbated by the fact that online penetration continues to be deeper among affluent households, which have historically skewed Republican," he continued. <<
Originally Posted By RoadTrip That would be very surprising in that virtually ANY on-line poll I see at the major news sites shows the liberal response being favored. This happens even in cases when I KNOW from other sources that the true national opinion leans the other way. If there are more Republicans on line, they must have a very low participation rate in on-line polls.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Wow, the top GOP sites are really Limbaugh, NewsMax and O'Reilly? That explains a lot.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Well, this poll is a little strange anyway since they looked at specific sites. I'm sure there are many people (like myself) who don't visit ANY of those sites they mentioned. Yes those sites obviously have high percentages of Republicans/Democrats, but unless you can somehow pull numbers from every site on the internet, it doesn't do any good. It's like saying there are more Democrats in this country after only doing polls in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I just don't see these numbers as really meaning much.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Polls are such funny things. When the numbers bolster one's own opinion, they are sacred. When they disagree, they don't mean much. Polls... they're like the opinions of old friends.
