MSNBC: Exit polls to be delayed in future elections

[mountebank]

News organizations say early release misled voters
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:13 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2004

NEW YORK - The consortium of news organizations that runs the election exit polls has voted to delay distributing data for several hours on future election days.

Exit poll data will not be distributed until after 4 p.m. ET to the organizations that have paid for it: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and The Associated Press, NBC’s elections director, Sheldon Gawiser, said Thursday.

snip

“There were an awful lot of people on the Internet talking about things they don’t understand,”’ said Gawiser, head of the news organizations’ steering committee. “First-wave exit poll data is not terribly accurate.”

Those first numbers reflect only interviews with people who have voted in the morning. By delaying release of numbers until between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., pollsters will have talked to more people and, it is presumed, have a more accurate snapshot of the electorate, he said.

snip

It was the third straight major election in which problems cropped up with exit poll data. Edison/Mitofsky was hired for this election after a previous organization failed to deliver usable exit poll information on Election Day 2002 and provided information that resulted in the television networks’ blowing calls on the election in 2000.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6523649/

Once again, the myth of the bad exit polls in 2000. Why does no on mention the 16,000 votes in Volusia Co. that flipped to Bush and then flopped to Gore? That's a rhetorical question, btw.

[Chico Man]

1. We need independant exit pollers

This must be part of the plan.?

[mulethree]

11. Cartel?

These giant news organizations band together and agree on one exit poll? 6+ huge news organizations and only one source? So they created a cartel monopoly?

The data is all donated by citizens leaving the polls, but then it becomes private property and nobody gets to see any of the data except for cooked and adjusted aggregates? They don't even disclose the recipe used for the cooking?

[d_b]

2. Bulllllllllllllshiiiiiiiiiiiit

[petepillow]

3. yeah yeah yeah

instead of fixing one tiny aspect of the election procedure, results reporting, counting, etc. each year, how's about a SWEEPING OVERHAUL. at the rate they're going, they'll have it all up-to-date for 2004--- in 2056! this ain't repairing college football and the BCS, people! this is repairing the process by which we choose the MOST POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT GOVERNING BODY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! AAAAAAAGGGHGHGHGHGHGHG!

[Magical]

4. Hey Sheldon...

“There were an awful lot of people on the Internet talking about things they don’t understand,”’ said Gawiser

Don't Understand, eh ?

I've got 25 years experience designing embedded hardware and software and I PERFECTLY WELL UNDERSTAND that electronic vote counting is insecure, prone to corruption, easily hacked without a trace, etc.

Now listen up, expert.
Until our election system is guaranteed honest, this is not a Democracy, that QUAINT fucking notion we're supposed to be spreading in Iraq.

And no matter how hard you spin it, it ain't going away.
This is CORRUPT. GOT IT. EXPERT ?

WE WANT VOTER VERIFIED VOTING !!!

[Triana]

5. all the better to hide the fraud in, m'dear...(n/t)

[DeadManInc]

6. MSNBC

I smell BULLSHIT!!!!!

[musette_sf]

9. Ya can't spell MSNBC without BS

[KeepItReal]

28. Except when Countdown With Keith is on....

<EOM>

[rooboy]

7. Gee, exit polling became really difficult from 2000 onwards... n/t

[recovering democrat]

8. Inconsistent - note Olbermann quote

In Bloggerman, he writes: Oh and by the way: how come the “Kerry’s winning” part of the election night exit polling is presumed to have been wrong, or tampered with, but the “Moral Values” part of the same polling is graded flawless, and marks the dawn of a new American century?

Another perspective on the myth of the bad exit polls.

[GoldenOldie]

12. If people don't understand it then why do they report it??????

Something is really wrong here. They report exit polls that are not correct and then blame those that attempt to research and analyze that very same data????

This is the same type of reporting that they have been do doing for the past 4-years or more.

[UpInArms]

15. since 1986 and a decision rendered by none other than

Robert Bork (yes, the Bork of "being Borked") - under RayGun we lost the Fairness Doctrine

http://www.fair.org/extra/9411/fcc-smoking.html

excerpt:

The Bork-Scalia Decision

The Fairness Doctrine has two components. First, and most importantly, it affirmatively requires that each broadcast licensee carry some coverage of controversial issues of public importance. This ensures that every broadcaster meets its duty to inform the electorate on public issues.

The better-known second prong of the doctrine requires reasonable balance in the coverage of these issues in a station's overall programming. The station has broad discretion on how to provide balanced coverage -- be it through news, talkshow discussions, guest editorials or other programming.

For many years, the Fairness Doctrine was successfully employed by energy, environmental, health and other organizations to obtain reply time in ballot issue cases. The Fairness Doctrine often helped to ensure that voters had the information they needed to make informed decisions at the ballot box. Since most people get their news and public affairs information from the broadcast media, the doctrine gave underfunded parties a fighting chance against a media blitz from well-heeled interests.

In 1987, the FCC stopped enforcing most applications of the doctrine, relying on a 1985 decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The decision, put forth by judges Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, treated enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine as a matter of FCC discretion, rather than as something legally mandated by Congress. This position departed sharply from 25 years of Fairness Doctrine implementation. It also set the stage for the FCC's decision in 1992 to stop enforcing the doctrine on ballot issues.

...please go to link for embedded links...

[musette_sf]

10. "MSNBC: Exit polls to be delayed in future elections"

They will henceforth be conducted on Inauguration Day.

:wtf:

[MaineYooper]

13. following appropriate massaging

so that they reproduce the "counts" (wink,wink) more accurately.

[TahitiNut]

14. "Good Germans" will wait until they're told what they think!

Sieg Heil!

[mountebank]

16. MSNBC is all over the place re: exit polls

From this article to Olbermann to THIS hit-piece written by some unqualified hack:

Full of Holes (Newsweek/MSNBC)

Commentators depended on the exit polls to predict the winner, but the polls got it wrong (again). Can they be trusted in future elections?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6408569/site/newsweek /

(discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=83058)

How did the 2000 debacle get pinned on the exit polls anyway. Anyone have good resources showing that the exit polls didn't have it wrong in 2000???

[Tace]

17. There's A Dynamic Evident Here That Is Fascinating

The major corporate owned US media outlets band together to control exit polling and to withhold the results of the polling from the public, citing the internet.

It is clear that the power of these media outlets to control public perception is being undermined by non-corporate internet information sources.

As a journalist with a degree in mass communications (Journalism major, Broadcasting minor), I find this to be fascinating and proof that we need independent exit polling of future elections. This is a BIG deal.

[Helga Scow Stern]

29. It is a HUGE deal! What can we do?

Would you make a post on it? In the Election Results Forum?

[w4rma]

18. Consortium? No. Cartel. These guys are a legal mafia. (nt)

[dweller]

19. oh boy..heheh...is this gonna backfire. N/T

dp

[lthuedk]

20. They need to wait for confirmation of the fix from the likes of Rove.

[KT2000]

21. one for the repubs

didn't they call for an end to exit polls a few days ago?

[GetTheRightVote]

22. Can you take much more of this or what ??

Now they are going to rig the exit polls as well and in this shift to the right they ulimate the one tool that was truest, the exit polls, I smell a rat, a repub rat, yuke.

[GetTheRightVote]

23. Not just the Media

but now the exit polls are owned by the repub in their rightous movement to elimate what remains of their opponents chances of a fair election.

[Justathought]

24. This smells like

what dictatorial societies propagate. Don't give any information to the public other than information that praises the dictator. :spank:

[glitch]

25. Future elections? Cute.

Just rubbing our noses in it now aren't they?

[Nordic]

26. hm, they've been inaccurate in 2000, 2002 and 2004?

gee, I see a pattern here

[peacetalksforall]

27. Bull, bull, bull....listen NBC - we don't care what you say or plan

because your exit poll data will be insignifacant when others take on polling in competition with you. Independent citizens polling is inevitable. We don't have to have RPNs (Republican Corporate Networks) working for the right wing dictate anything to us.

The people are wising up. You are on your way out. Soon you will understand - the people are not going to care what you say....you did it to yourself. Plus, we need you to pay the taxpayers back for misusing our airwaves.

You're voice is getting weak, weaker, and is gasping.

You thought your right wing operations were transparent to us - no more...never more...nothing more. Bye!

Citizens for their own polls!

[astroboy]

30. NEWSFLASH: Bush WINS the ELECTRICAL VOTE AGAIN!

who needs EXIT POLLS anyways... oh, yeah, to measure the MORAL INDIGNATION :crazy:

[carolinalady]

31. From everything I have heard--the Bushies did not understand it

either. They thought they were losing.

[bloom]

32. who needs 'em - next time all the bloggers can fund their own exit poll

together - and post it online.

Heck - DU could probably come up with enough donations for that purpose.

Ha!

No one would even have a reason to watch the news. :bounce:

[ally_sc]

33. who decides these policies?

It is another attempt to control things. My God it is not the Miss Universe pagent.

[ThoughtCriminal]

34. Independent Exit Polls only way to save Democracy

Non-partisan and DESIGNED to detect fraud. Get the ball rolling on this and watch the desperate measures to cripple or prevent it.

[daleo]

35. The White House is accusing the Ukraine govt of electoral fraud

Because of the variance between exit polls and final results.

[JusticeForAll]

36. Spare me any more lies about this stupid corrupt election. n/t

[pig.]

37. And WHY did the totals change after end reporting

as mentioned in the paper by Steven Freeman at U Penn
THE UNEPLAINED EXIT POLL DISCREPANCY.

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/The_unexplained_exit_poll_discrepancy_v00k.pdf

he had final data at 130am on the third and later it was different...

hmmmm

[Carolab]

38. Snort

"By delaying release of numbers until between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., pollsters will have talked to more people and, it is presumed, have a more accurate snapshot of the electorate, he said."

AFTER ROVE changes them, that is!

[dbt]

39. Woomp! There it is!

The Media Borg MUST move quickly to kill exit polling, and this piece from MSNBC shows--between the lines--the desperation that's blowing through the network "newsrooms" these days.

With the Internet breathing down their scaly necks, the Whore Nets have GOT to discredit any vestige of truth. Trouble is, they're about to drown in vestiges, thanks to the Internet!

:argh:
dbt