Posted on 11/04/2004 12:50:49 PM PST by Cableguy
Yes, but these apply to the registration and voting process itself. As far as I know there is no law regulating what a network can report as poll results (no matter how inaccurate) or those with whom they choose to collude. The risk is not one of legal consequences so much as breach of public trust. If major networks want to take that risk, that's their prerogative. Obviously folks these days are less inclined to buy their rubbish.
You mean the "New Pravda Times"?
--Boot Hill
This may be true. In fact, as far as I know, it is. But it's time to start looking for the two-by-four to hit some of these people with.
Hehe. The fact that the American people saw through their shenanigans and re-elected GWB has to smart more than a two-by-four. What sweet victory to see them lifted up by their own lies and then slammed to the ground with a body blow from reality!
The networks were criminal Tuesday night. However, despite the panic that was running rampant around here early on, once the New England states results started coming in and it was clear that Bush was still pulling away in the PV count, things were looking good. Then, once IL came in with the first batch 80-20 to Kerry and Bush was still pulling away, and the first batches out of FL and OH had W up 56-42 and 54-44 respectively, that was our first clue that this race was over.
Oddly enough, even at that time (~5:30 PST), Freepers will still panicking about the exit polls.
The purpose of the skewed exit polls were to manipulate the slow media calls. When ballot numbers look like exit poll numbers, they are more confident to call, despite there being a certain percentage of ballots which aren't counted yet.
Jig the exit numbers & get your operatives counting ballots to report the polling precints you know will lean your way in as fast as possible. Keep in mind, the percentage of how much is done that the networks are giving out are not a percentage of ballots cast, but a percentage of wards that have reported. Ohio had 11,477. Pennsylvania had 9411. Florida had 7223. California had 24,039.
So you shoot through your tiny place good number spots quickly & they confirm skewed exit numbers. You get a quick call. Meanwhile, your opponent is fighting to get calls, because the numbers don't look anything like the exit polls.
You *work* this hard in all states in the eastern time zone, battleground states in the central time zone & you might be able to depress opponent's potential votes, especially states in the later time zones.
BTTT
Networks have to serve the public good as part of their license to use public airwaves. When the collude, it can be argued that they are no longer serving "the public" good, because they are serving another master.
Dicey from a legal standpoint is the fact that anyone at anytime, when faced with a poll, can give false information without fear of prosecution. I cannot think of any way to hold networks accountable when it comes to exit polls. I'd rather see accountability at the registration and voting levels and let the networks play their games.
As far as I'm concerned it is a given: Network news has an agenda, and I will treat it accordingly. It's the citizen's responsibility to sort out fact from fiction.
I'd like to see other ways of addressing this exit poll problem besides legislation and litigation if only because these could muzzle other freedoms down the road.
When we're talking about reporting exit polling data, I agree with you. Taking action would be inappropriate.
I was talking about collusion with one of the political parties about holding off calling for a state, especially after all of the vote numbers are in. It's one thing to refrain from calling a state, because it's statistacally possible for the state to go the other way, but you better make sure that all states with a similar potential are handled the same way. It's quite another thing to refrain from calling the state, because you get a phone call from one the interested parties telling you to refrain.
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