Welcome to a new irregular series for this site. From time to time I will do a post that covers and comments on all of the poll-shaped objects that come to my attention in a given month. Where relevant, the article may also discuss real polling on the same issue. Once I've decided there is enough material and time to put out an issue for a given month, all others that I see in that month will be added to the piece. However I won't necessarily put out a PSO article every month; usually I will release such articles when there seem to be far too many of the things around and I feel that the proper order of things needs to be restored. An early version of this idea can be seen in a 2017 article Poll Roundup: Attack Of The Poll-Shaped Objects.
The term poll-shaped object is one that I use to deride the overly credulous reporting of unsound or insufficiently transparent polls in media articles, and also the peddling of such polls by pressure groups, so-called think tanks, parties and other groups that cling to the foolish belief that you can influence public opinion by telling fibs about it. A PSO can, for instance, be any of (i) something that is claimed to be a poll but isn't (ii) an especially unsound poll or (iii) a possibly sound poll for which the level of reported detail has been woefully lacking. (The term is by analogy with piano-shaped object, something that appears to be a piano but sounds horrible or is impossible to play - whether by reason of shoddy construction, mistreatment or decay.)
