WaPo and NYT coordinated polling release?

Six Point lead in WaPo and eight for the NYT

Biden leads Trump by six points in the most recent ABC/WaPo poll (when all candidates are listed) and the NYT Siena poll shows Biden leading by eight. It seems like every time there are some pollsters (generally independent pollsters) that show the race tightening, the media polls come along and repute them. 

The ABC/WaPo poll is being headlined as a double digit ten point lead, which is hypothetically what Biden would have if there were no third Party candidates to choose from. But when you include the Libertarian and Green Party candidates many of the Independent Biden supporter appear to wander over to these candidates. It would be interesting to see if Kayne West actually would receive any polling support (as he will appear in several state ballots as a Presidential candidate) if he was also listed as a choice. 

Not sure why anyone would want to pretend that third Party candidates do not exist, but it would be very curious to see how many of these other polls would tighten if you allowed these other choices to exist. Many are still only polling a two way race. This was also a major factor in 2016 polling where Clinton similarly polled better when only two options were provided, while Trump polled better in a three or four way race.

What this strongly suggests is that there is plenty of independents who are very luke warm about voting for Joe Biden. Him winning them over for good might be the difference between another 2016 sort of election and the significant Biden victory that many polls suggest. 

Neither of these polls provided much for cross tabs and from what was provided it was difficult to mathematically tie those cross tabs to the top line being reported. What I can tell you in general with 2020 polling is that while there is a still a noticeable difference in the Demographic breakdown in comparison to historical precedent, the bigger difference between what I see in 2020 vs 2016 is the extremely wide range of how pollsters are seeing independents (which might be due to whether or not third Party candidates are listed).  

So far I have seen cross tabs showing Trump leading with Independents by a couple points more than he won them in 2016 to Biden winning them by twenty points or more (Trump won Independents in 2016 by four). We are literally seeing a spread between highs and lows of nearly thirty points as it pertains to independents. Which is correct? I don't have a difficult time believing that Independents might shift from election to election, such is the nature of that beast.  But I do find it difficult to believe that they would shift by as much as twenty five points (as some polls are suggesting).