Longtime political reporter Walter Shapiro thinks the press is inflating the value and importance of a lot of polls that don't mean a lot. I like this part…
…TV ratings are not boosted by anyone displaying uncertainty about poll numbers and expressing humility before the voters. These days, the only three words that pundits can't say on television are "I don't know." Print and online publications get clicks by ballyhooing the latest poll numbers, no matter how meaningless. Nobody is going to headline a story, "Trump Leads In New National Poll with Little Predicative Value."
It's pretty much the same as that line I quote all the time from another seasoned reporter, Jack Germond: "The trouble with the news is we're not paid to say 'I don't know' even when we don't know."