The New York Times has added an editor’s note to an article featuring a Wedgewood poll that reads: “This page previously included surveys from Wedgewood Polls. On Oct. 20, after being questioned by the polling site FiftyPlusOne, Wedgewood released a statement admitting it had fabricated data for its polls. All of Wedgewood’s polls have been removed from our poll tracking project.”

Earlier this month, MS NOW featured a Wedgewood Poll showing Jocelyn Benson (D) with a 10-point lead over Trump-backed John James ® in the Michigan gubernatorial race.

In addition to The Times and MS NOW, scores of media outlets and prominent poll aggregators cited Wedgewood polling data, including; Newsweek, Decision Desk HQ, and Mediaite.

https://archive.is/CYJxV

  • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    “Sparking a conversation” is a funny way of saying “provide an instruction manual to bad actors.”

    It’s like releasing an unpatched security exploit to “Spark a conversation.”

  • MrEff@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    While yes, there is the mentality of “that’s what I would say if I got caught too!”, they should have pre registered and sealed it as a valid experiment or signed some sealed affidavit to be revealed along with this statement. It would have made the impact even more impressive.

  • flandish@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    i think this is fantastic. i want to know, out of curiosity, how “far” they got by name though. being from the industry, and i bet it’s a small world, a name might bring with it some accidental creds. part of the equation for sure. just curious.

  • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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    7 hours ago

    So … how do I get paid for coming up with fake poll numbers? This is a scam I’d like to get in on.