I do not trust political polls. I blame this mistrust on the man who taught the European history class I took in 1992 while stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base. The man’s name is John Zogby. When not teaching a night class for Utica College, he ran a polling business in central New York, John Zogby Associates.
I took the class because I was two classes shy of earning an Associate’s degree in avionics. I thought I’d enjoy European history class because, at the time, I enjoyed reading about the Napoleonic wars.
Taking the class turned out to be a mistake.
The class was different than any other college class I took. It didn’t take place on the Utica College campus. It was held on Griffiss Air Force Base. What really set it apart was that it didn’t have a textbook.
All information was conveyed solely through John Zogby’s lectures. This was the first and only class I ever took that didn’t have a textbook. The worst thing about this class was that the final grade was based entirely on two tests: one at the midterm and the other at the end of the class.
Additionally, the two tests would consist of essay questions.
I didn’t particularly appreciate how the class didn’t have a textbook. Also, I wouldn’t say I liked how two essay tests determined the class’s final grade. A lot could go wrong with having only two essay tests deciding your grade. Essay-based tests can be very subjective.
I prepared for the midterm exam by studying my notes all weekend long. If I had a textbook, I would have studied that as well.
On the night of the midterm test, John Zogby presented us with a proposal: work eight hours at his polling business, and he would raise our grade by one complete level. The offer didn’t seem right. What did European history have to do with American politics?
Because I was so worried about passing the class, I jumped at his offer. Almost everyone else in the class did too.
We took the midterm. I felt I did well. Because of my preparation, the answers came easily to me. I left class that night feeling confident I would pass.
The following week, I discovered I earned an “A” on the midterm. I was happy. I realized that no matter how badly I did on the final, I would earn at least a “C.”
This meant I would earn my three credits from the class and move on. It also meant I didn’t need to pull an unpaid eight-hour shift at John Zogby’s polling business.
After reviewing our midterms, John Zogby went through the list of people who agreed to pull a shift at his polling business. He wanted to make out a schedule. One by one, my fellow students told him they changed their minds. They would not be working at his polling business.
As he worked through the list, he seemed to grow increasingly annoyed. He then addressed the room as a whole and asked for a show of hands of the students who changed their minds about his proposal.
A lot of hands went up, including my own.
John Zogby didn’t react very well to this show of hands. He asked why we changed our minds.
A woman in the class said, in retrospect, she didn’t think it was ethical to raise our grade by a level for doing unrelated work at his business. She was a hundred percent correct.
It was completely unethical.
John Zogby reacted to this comment by losing his temper in a major way. He acted like a baby. He shouted that no one had ever questioned his ethics before. I found that very hard to believe.
He shouted about the indignity of having his ethics questioned.
John Zogby started out focusing all his rage on her. He quickly turned his wrath on all of us. He probably realized (correctly) that we all agreed with her. It was unethical for him to use his position as a college instructor to obtain free labor for his polling business.
It took a while, but he finally calmed down. He then tried to teach the class as though nothing happened. About ten minutes into his lecture, he lost his temper again, saying many of the same things he said before. Although I’ve seen people lose their temper before, I’ve never seen anyone lose it, calm down, and then go for another round a few minutes later with no further provocation.
The whole thing made for a very uncomfortable evening. I wished he just canceled class that night. He once canceled it because of too much snow, but waited until everyone had arrived before doing so.
For whatever reason, the class proceeded that night as normal, even though nothing about it was normal.
I lost all respect for John Zogby
I never looked at John Zogby the same again. Originally, I thought he was smart and an excellent speaker. Then he became a big baby-man who would publicly yell at a woman for telling the truth in response to his question.
If you cannot handle the answer, do not ask the question. As a pollster, you’d think he’d know this.
On the night of the final, I felt confident. I studied my notes all weekend long and left class that night feeling it paid off. It wasn’t that I thought I did well on the test. I knew I did well.
Imagine my surprise when I received my final overall grade for the class and discovered it was a “C.” Because I earned an “A” on the midterm, it meant I received an “F” on the final.
If John Zogby didn’t appreciate having his ethics questioned, he sure had a funny way of showing it. In my eyes, my final grade for the class only confirmed he was an unethical and dishonest person. If I earned an A on the midterm, there was no way I earned an “F” on the final.
A few years later, after I left the Air Force, I saw John Zogby on cable news, weighing in on political races as though he knew what he was talking about. To me, he was a pathetic man who yelled at a woman. He tried to use his position as a community college educator to get free labor for his business.
I think John Zogby is unethical, dishonest, and a bully. If someone like him is considered a respected political pollster, I have no respect for political pollsters.
In conclusion
The woman in my class was brave. I feel bad that we allowed her to say what I’m sure the rest of us were thinking. In my defense, I was an enlisted serviceman in the U.S. military. Standing up to someone in authority was alien to me. I don’t think she was in the Air Force. If memory serves, her spouse was in the Air Force.