Unbelieveable evidence of media irresponsibility

[EarlG]

We just received this email from ABC-30 in Fresno, CA - coincidentally, the home of Free Republic. This is proof positive that the media relies on unscientific polls to enforce their conventional wisdom upon their viewers. Message follows, emphasis added.

+++

You have a link on your website in the discussion boards that is sending people to the ABC-30 Fresno website (http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn) to alter the outcome of poll results. Due to the number of votes generated by those who followed the link from your website, the poll data has been skewed and is not usable for the purposes of the polls.

Please remove the link from your website, so there can be an accurate measure of those in our area who want to participate in the polls and we can use the results as we previously intended. By flooding the poll with votes heavily in favor of the Democratic candidate, it becomes obvious that the poll is inaccurate and therefore doesn't get used on-air during our newscasts.

By removing the link from your site and allowing our polls to be run without any outside-the-area influence, the poll will more accurately show who viewers in our area believe won the debates. The first debate's results, obviously won by a Democratic candidate, would have been shown on our newscast if it wasn't for the obvious skewing of the results. Unfortunately, the numbers were so dramatically affected, the poll results got no air time at all on our station.

Please remove the link, and any others that may be on your site, as soon as possible.

Thank You,

David Cardoza
Web Operations Manager

KFSN-TV Channel 30
ABC30.com

+++

Okay, first of all, if you want to "accurately show who viewers in our area believe won the debates," pay a fucking professional polling company. Public Internet polls are available to anyone who has Internet access, and using them in a TV news broadcast is the height of irresponsibility.

Note that Mr. Cardoza tells us that "by flooding the poll with votes heavily in favor of the Democratic candidate, it becomes obvious that the poll is inaccurate and therefore doesn't get used on-air during our newscasts." What does this mean? It means that they will only broadcast a poll which they believe is close to what they think the result should be.

Saying that "it becomes obvious that the poll is inaccurate" is an admission that the poll is inaccurate. But Mr. Cardoza says that if we hadn't demonstrated that it was inaccurate, they would have shown it on television. Even though they know it's inaccurate.

Now, the RNC sent out a mass email to all of their subscribers on Tuesday asking them to go vote in Internet polls once the debate was over. If we hadn't organized DUers to combat this operation, the polls would have been skewed in the other direction. But Mr. Cardoza is asking us to back off because we've made their poll unusable.

Whenever you see the media reporting on these polls they always note that the results are unscientific. If that's the case, why show them at all? They don't mean anything!

The reason they show them is because they can pick and choose which polls they want to show and use them to reinforce whatever spin they're putting on their news report.

Mr. Cardoza claims that "The first debate's results, obviously won by a Democratic candidate, would have been shown on our newscast if it wasn't for the obvious skewing of the results." Well why weren't they? If it was obvious that the Democratic candidate won, why not show a poll which demonstrates that?

In fact, why don't they just invent the damn poll results? It would be just as accurate, and then they can make them say whatever they want.

</rant>

[cally]

1. Soi, EarlG, you of course removed the link

;-) We wouldn't want the Dems to win in the online nonscientific polls. Of course not.

[EarlG]

9. Actually, they removed the poll

Now they're using the ABC poll which showed Cheney won the debate. (You know, the poll that sampled 38% Republicans, 31% Democrats, 27% Independents.)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200410060001

[enigmatic]

17. Earl, has DU emailed a reply to them?

I seriously think DU needs to do this; this is an outrage.

[EarlG]

23. Not yet

I'll probably send one in the morning.

[Endangered Specie]

39. Do please post what you email them...

Im sure it will be good! :)

[Beetwasher]

29. Put A Permanent Link On DU's Homepage To Their Poll Page

So we can all give our opinions all the time on any idiotic thing these stupid fucks want people's opinions on. Douchebags.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Question for Mr Cardoza

How does he know who is a local and who isn't? It's the friggin internet. If a web operations manager is this confused, perhaps he should get into another line of work.

[Philostopher]

13. Well, if they really cared ...

they could probably program something to do DNS matching that could kick out anybody who wasn't using an ISP in their area. But, then, that would probably exclude AOLers ... and we all know AOL skews right. So that wouldn't solve their problem of getting the answers they want, now would it?

I don't know why, as inaccurate as online/interactive polls like this are anyway, online pollers who really are concerned about the accuracy of their polls and 'incursions' from outside voters in said polls don't require a registration. It wouldn't stop outside incursions, mind you, but it would slow down everybody from both sides from voting a thousand times -- there wouldn't be time.

It's pretty stupid to whine about it if you can't be arsed to fix the problem -- there are ways they could approach it, if they wanted more local response. Personally, I think they just wanted somebody to whine to, and they found DU.

[David Zephyr]

26. Exactly! What a Zero.

And thanks to EarlG for this story.

[dweller]

41. perhaps manufacturing?

ya want fries with that?

dp

[A_Possum]

3. WHO do they think they are??

Telling you to remove a link to their poll!!

In addition to all of your excellent points, this is just massive arrogance. If they put a link on a webpage, then then the net links to it.

Idiots!

I hope you wrote him back telling him he's really in the wrong line of work if he thinks the internet is a local medium.

[Beetwasher]

4. Fuck 'Em

and leave the link too and ALWAYS link the fuckers now. Put a HUGE fucking link on the home page. The poll is open to anyone on the internet and I will now ALWAYS vote in their shit ass stupid fucking polls if only to piss them the fuck off. I'll schedule it in now and forever; "fuck w/ the douchebags' polls", it's in my organizer... Douchebags.

[Qanisqineq]

12. I LOVE this post

ha! Made my day, hilarious! :evilgrin: :toast: :bounce: :party: :kick: :headbang: :yourock:

[Out the Parasites]

16. kick

:kick:

[MsUnderstood]

5. Another factor

Is that you have people at DU who live in the area. (I know it is pathetic).

Anyway, by posting the poll at DU you are helping those in the area find the poll in order to be counted.

Totally agree though, if they want scientific then pick up a phone book and do some phone calls. Internet polling is lazy and irresponsible journalism.

[Mountainman]

6. I wonder if Rim Job ever told him about "freep this poll!"

I'm sure he sent the same message to freakrepublic

[EarlG]

25. Hmm, good point

Especially since the Freepers were using our list to try to counterfreep these polls. They appear to have failed miserably though.

[arikara]

7. Their site says that Cheney won the debate

Obviously they wanted their poll to reflect their views... much like CNN who scrubbed their poll from last night.

I do have a suggestion however that instead of clicking the link that everyone copy/pastes it in. That may help.

[terrya]

8. I certainly wouldn't want you guys to get into trouble, Earl, but...

This guy didn't seem to threaten any legal action.

I say fuck em. Leave the link. :-)

[Ducks In A Row]

10. So Whoopi will be getting her job back, right?

I mean it was a coordinate media attack and we can't bow to that kind of pressure, right?


Oh yeah, I didn't think so.

[unfrigginreal]

11. Link to the poll everyday

and let's have a pow wow on what we want it to reflect.

[Out the Parasites]

14. RANT...Part 2 This is outrageous!!!

Outrageous. Not only did the RNC direct their constituents to vote in on-line polls, as well as, other polls (telephone etc.). Later Freepers were directing them HERE to DU to get a better list of the polling places!!! The fact that there are more Democrats voting, even with the freepers knowing where to go, it showed Edwards still "won" their unscientific on line poll. This makes me so made I could spit!

"By flooding the poll with votes heavily in favor of the Democratic candidate, it becomes OBVIOUS that the poll is inaccurate and therefore doesn't get used on-air during our newscasts."

What is OBVIOUS here is a complete mis-understanding of what a "poll" is all about.

:puke:

[bigtree]

15. Ha

We don't count to him 'cause we're organized. The fact that we exist and operate with this much force should be displayed in their polls which are compromised at the start by the rhetoric and tone of their own on-air agenda.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

18. On second thought..this asshole has ZERO marketing sense

The reason online papers post polls is for hits to their websites so that they may show advertisers their traffic...a BOON to anyone advertising on their site.....maybe we should take our 20,000 hits elsewhere :evilgrin:

You ought to CC this to the general manager of the news site..and his advertisers and show them what ijits they are wasting their money on...he just told you...DON'T SEND PEOPLE TO OUR WEBSITE!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

20. yep

he manages Web Operations like you'd expect chimp to manage them, by driving business straight off of a fucking cliff.

The fact that they run businesses similarly is telling.

[EarlG]

22. Ha ha!

I didn't even think of that - that's hilarious!

What's sad is that even though what you say is absolutely true: "The reason online papers post polls is for hits to their websites so that they may show advertisers their traffic," the media still broadcast the poll results during newscasts.

Well, if the results say what they want them to say, obviously.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. I would send this letter off to MEDIA MATTERS

And a couple other choice groups since you have the IP address it came from and can verify what a moron is running this station's web program.....for the media...it's all about DOLLARS.

If DU handles it alone, it looks like sour grapes...but if FRESNO area advertisers realize they are contributing their advertising dollars to a complete boob...especially in an economy that is VERY POOR for retailers...it could just help us make the media a bit more truthful and a bit less partisan.

[Dookus]

19. LOL...

I hope you wrote back and told him to pound sand.

[AmerDem]

21. I hope you replied to him....

or are in the process of replying telling him exactly what you told us.

I love the fact their plans were knocked off course. Can't wait to do it all over again Friday!

[ibegurpard]

24. I'd like to see your response.

:P

[Ima]

28. little trick

The site that you vote on, only knows the very last site you were on, that's how they knew to check for a link here.

What I did was, open a new window on FR (he he) and tried to vote. They have taken it down and declared B/C the winners.

In the future while voting, I will keep several windows open.
Copy address
click open new window REFRESH
paste link and vote
come back to DU
repeat

A little something from FR

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1237294/posts

[snowbear]

33. ack

Ima, I looked at the link to the freeper post you added, and this is one of their comments..

"We invented it. But it's only bad when dems do it"

Gawd, they're SICK!

[TheWebHead]

27. if they send this to freepers

maybe this isn't such a bad e-mail... if only one side is doing this, it skews the results and the assumed geography of visitors. you may have to revise the strategy to recommend a copy/paste to direct to smaller regional website polls.

[depakid]

30. Using internet polls PERIOD is irresponsible

Actually, the same could be said about many of the obviously flawed media polls, too- considering their shoddy and often purposefully skewed methodology, but at least they have some meager pretense of being "scientific."

The bottom line, which some, but unforunately not most, DU'rs know is that cheap media commissioned polls are used to shape public opinion- not to accurately reflect it. Internet polls are no different- and the the media has no problem tossing them out for mass consumption too- provided that they support Republicans and their positions.

Given that that's the case, I say keep hammering all of them and more. As many as we can find. I must have hit 100 or so last night. If the best we can do is keep bogus right wing results from being used and reported as "news," well, that's a victory in and of itself.

[ibegurpard]

32. That's right

Anyone who thinks these polls reflect anything other than the views of rabid politics wonks is sadly misinformed. However, the sadly misinformed have these "polls" trotted in front of them by the irresponsible media with hasty, under-the-breath caveats and thus they become legitimate, at least in the perception of the public. That's why we can't let the freepers dominate.

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

34. Oh, so I guess

the only people allowd to vote in polls are the reps? So, we're not allowd to support our guys? :eyes:

[spooky3]

35. Some questions/points for preparing a response...

1) I'm not a lawyer--maybe someone who is can answer--do they have any legal right to demand that you remove a link? If you are not "stealing bandwidth", isn't this your free speech right to link to sites of interest?

2) I AM a researcher, so on the following I do have some expertise: Exactly how does Mr. Cardoza plan to make his DU-linkless poll "scientific" or in any other way more meaningful or representative than it currently is? The answer is that no poll like this can be said to be scientific, particularly not when Mr. Cardoza is going to pick and choose who gets access to his site and who doesn't. Keeping DU from linking to it will likely not make one whit of difference in the accuracy of the results; in fact it may make results LESS representative.

3) Given 2, how does blocking DU accomplish any objective other than keeping some Democratics from easily voting in his polls?

4) Isn't this really driven by either (a) his own wish to influence the results in a direction he wants and (b) his (local) advertisers' wish to be assured that the visitors to his sites, who may see the ads, are local? If (b) that may be legitimate, but how will he absolutely assure that ALL visitors are local, rather than simply blocking DU and another source or two?

5) How does DU's voting in the polls keep him from reporting that a Democrat won or did not win the debate itself (e.g., have unbiased experts score the candidates)? And as for the poll results, what is preventing him from simply reporting that the polls are unscientific because anyone can vote in them and organized voting can't be prevented, and then reporting the results?

[WillyT]

36. Check THIS One Out !!!

I missed the first 20 minutes of HardBall, so I don't know how they determined that 'Cheney Won'; but I go to their poll:

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/

And it's 59% Edwards, 41% Cheney...

WITH 2,211,950 RESPONSES!!!

No group can influence much with a number THAT big!

:wtf: is going on with THAT???

Tell your TV viewers that Cheney won, and then tell your web viewers that Edwards won???

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

:crazy::wow::crazy:

[janx]

37. Are you sure this email is was actually sent by ABC?

It sounds a little strange to me, especially the line about the Dem lead at one point.

[EarlG]

44. It's from the webmaster of a local affiliate

[KoKo]

38. Right On! with you analysis. We know that the Freeps have been doing

this for years with e-mail blaster so it's only we "WE" fight back as Dems that they start a howl...of "Unfair...we see who you are and know you are "attacking our server." ...cease and desist...so that everyone else can come in an vote...Rings hollow an not true to me, too.
:shrug:

[ogradda]

40. hold up here.

i am a person who is voting in the election. i am voting democratic. so when i vote their poll i'm skewing the results? what difference does it make where i get the link from? it's an actual representation of what my vote will be and what my opinion is isn't that what they want?

[realFedUp]

42. well....Fresno

enuf said.

[0rganism]

43. You got this mail, and DU showed up in WND, for exactly ONE reason

The freepers e-mail-blasted WND and the Fresno ABC station with complaints about your link. The editors and admins had to respond somehow, to please their "base", and we're seeing the results right about now. Without the freeping, they wouldn't even care; they'd just move along to the next chunk of propaganda.

[AuntPatsy]

47. Your right since that was their intent all along by attempting

to freep the polls than sent letters of complaint, I read that on here last night. All internet addressess are open and fair game so they can just deal with the fact that this country is much more Pro Kerry Edwards than they would like to believe..

It's what I tell my kids when they throw tantrums like this guy from abc did in writing that email, I say keep voting the polls, they have no legal right whatsoever to stop anyone from using what is obviously an open and free site for all, even Dems..if all they wanted was Pro Chen, supporters, they should have stated as much, then perhaps they could have had their so called fair poll to broadcast to the massess their continued propaganda mind games...

[high density]

45. Oh no!

We skewed the results of their non-scientific web poll!

[troublemaker]

46. Ohhh... the should have used the fww (Fresno.Wide.Web)