Vermont Digger under fire - from liberals!

By Ted Cohen

A digital Vermont newspaper well-known for its leftist leanings is taking flack from its own ilk for allegedly pumping up Republican Gov. Phil Scott's poll numbers.

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Believe it or not as Robert Ripley would say.

To wit, a Redditor is calling out Vermont Digger for allegedly overstating Scott's popularity.

"VT Digger is running a headline that inflates Scott's poll margins by reporting the raw VPR results," says a widely-followed Reddit post by u/IrrationalDive.

The Digger headline in question said, "New poll shows Gov. Phil Scott leading Amanda Janoo by 10 points."

The poll comes after last week's UNH data showed Scott and Janoo in a "statistical tie," according to Digger.

"The 'statistical tie' is referring to a margin-of-error analysis that UNH did" says IrrationalDive. "I can't see placing that next to the raw margins of the VPR poll as anything other than dishonest."

The Vermont Public Radio poll showed Scott in the upcoming election receiving 42 percent to Democrat Janoo's 32 percent.

"These results reflect a 16-point swing from Friday's Green Mountain State Poll by the University of New Hampshire, which, based on margin of error in the survey, declared a 'statistical tie,"' with Janoo leading the race 49 percent to 43 percent," according to Digger reporter Tierney Flavin.

Vermont Public said its poll has a 3.4 percent margin of error either plus or minus.

UNH showed the race too close to call.

"Amanda Janoo has increased her support significantly since winning the Democratic Primary last month and is now in a statistical tie with Republican incumbent Phil Scott," the UNH Survey Center said.

Guy Page, editor of Vermont Daily Chronicle, compared the two polls earlier this week to square the differences.