Wash Post 11/4/04: How the media helped cover up the stolen election

[glengarry]

Right away, they assumed that the vote count was perfect...and the "leaked" exit polls were wrong. The NEP had to "adjust" the numbers by matching the Final Exit Poll to reflect the "actual" recorded vote count.

They never considered exploring the possibility that the "actual" recorded vote was wrong. And that's why the "spreadsheet-wielding" internet bloggers went to work.

This is what Richard Morin , a Washington Post Staff Writer, wrote on Thursday, November 4, 2004:

“An Election Day filled with unexpected twists ended with a familiar question: What went wrong with the network exit polls?... In two previous national elections, the exit polls had behaved badly. Premature calls by the networks in Florida led to a congressional investigation in 2000. Two years later, a computer meltdown resulted in no release of data on Election Day…. Results based on the first few rounds of interviewing are usually only approximations of the final vote. Printouts warn that estimates of each candidate's support are unreliable and not for on-air use.….That is why the early leaks anger Joe Lenski of Edison Media Research, which conducted Tuesday's exit poll with Mitofsky International for the National Election Pool, a consortium of the major television networks and the Associated Press…. After the survey is completed and the votes are counted, the exit poll results are adjusted to reflect the actual vote, which in theory improves the accuracy of all the exit poll results, including the breakdown of the vote by age, gender and other characteristics”.

http://www.geocities.com/electionmodel/TruthIsAllFAQResponse.htm#Introduction

[Berry Cool]

1. "The media," "the media," "the media." I guess they weren't watching Olbermann.

Every night he was getting on his show, questioning the election results.

It sure cemented my status as a fan.