Free Republic

Report just issues, mapes finally fired

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL DICK THORNBURGH AND LOUIS D. BOCCARDI ON THE SEPTEMBER 8, 2004 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY SEGMENT “FOR THE RECORD” CONCERNING PRESIDENT BUSH’S TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE JANUARY 5, 2005 KIRKPATRICK & LOCKHART NICHOLSON GRAHAM LLP Michael J. Missal, Esq. Lawrence Coe Lanpher, Esq. 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 778-9000 Counsel to the Independent Review Panel i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................4 A. 60 Minutes Wednesday Background..............................................................................6 B. The Pursuit of a Story on President Bush’s TexANG Service ......................................7 C. Obtaining Documents ....................................................................................................8 D. The Production of...

In May 2003, I suggested in this space that the exit polls would need more than a makeover. I also questioned the wisdom of putting veteran exit pollster Warren Mitofsky in charge. Shortly thereafter, I received a telephone call from Mitofsky, who, naturally, expressed his disagreement with my opinions. Later in the year, I heard from Mitofsky again when I criticized his exit polls in the California gubernatorial recall election. I’ll say this for him: Mitofsky is a great flack. And he must be a great salesman. Anyone who can talk the networks into giving him $10 million for the...

By Jim Emerson Editor, RogerEbert.com October 14, 2004Who's the, uh, biggest villain in "Team America"? Kim Jong Il or Hollywood celebrities?"You should learn to keep your opinions OUT of your reviews!" Every critic I know has received at least one letter like that from an indignant reader. Of course, it's an absurd proposition; critics are paid to express their opinions, and the good ones (who exercise what is known across all disciplines as "critical thinking") are also able to cite examples and employ sound reasoning to build an argument, showing you how and why they reached their verdict. Well, since...

The first thing we have to realize is that media liberals tried to throw the election for the party of the ass again. Of course, this newsletter's readers were alerted[1] back in issue 321 (Another Election Reporting SNAFU Coming Up). In a nutshell, the failed Voter News Service was replaced by two groups headed by former CBS News reporters with their election results funneled to Associated Press to tabulate and disseminate to media outlets. So, we had the very-left (Bush Administration haters) AP essentially programming most news outlets on election results. AP will never be confused with fair and balanced...

Please take a few moments to send the following email to the Federal Communications Commission at: Michael.Powell@fcc.gov; fccinfo@fcc.govOr, CLICK HERE to generate a pre-addressed email. Subject:  Two Alleged FCA ViolationsDear Chairman Powell,The FCC has previously has ruled that broadcasters, as public trustees, may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC has stated that "rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest."  I am writing to alert the FCC to two potential violations of this ruling that have occurred over the past two weeks.  The FCC must carry out it's statutory duty -- i.e. implementing...

Thanks to lessons learned four years ago when big media made some wrong calls, the average American watching television Tuesday night got a pretty accurate picture of how the election was going. But for about seven hours in the afternoon and early evening, several million "insiders" with access to exit-poll data -- blog readers, print journalists, TV executives, politicos and their e-mail buddies -- had a different impression. Aided by wishful thinking in some cases, many were convinced that John Kerry was benefitting from a powerful voter surge. The news largely wasn't reported on TV or in newspapers, but for...

Polling firm Zogby International accurately predicted President Bush's Ohio victory, as well as the defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota, and accurately forecast the outcome of every Senate race in our final battleground poll, conducted October 29 through November 1, 2004. The margin of error was +/- 4.1 percentage points. PRESIDENTIAL VOTE -2004 STATE BUSH KERRY CO-Actual 53% 46% CO-Zogby 49% 47% FL-Actual 52% 47% FL-Zogby 48% 48% IA-Actual 50% 49% IA-Zogby 45% 50% MI-Actual 48% 51% MI-Zogby 46% 52% MN-Actual 48% 51% MN-Zogby 45% 51% NV-Actual 51% 48% NV-Zogby 50% 45% NM-Actual 50% 49% NM-Zogby...

Statement from John Zogby on 2004 Presidential Election Results: “We feel strongly that our pre-election polls were accurate on virtually every state. Our predictions on many of the key battleground states like Ohio and Florida were within the margin of error. I thought we captured a trend, but apparently that result didn’t materialize. “We always saw a close race, and a close race is what we’ve got. I’ve called this the Armageddon Election for some time—a closely-divided electorate with high partisan intensity on each side."

When the exit polling data showing Sen. John Kerry performing strongly leaked out this afternoon, it sent Wall Street into a tailspin. But as actual vote totals came in after the polls closed, it appeared the exit polls were inaccurate. The exit polls made it more difficult for television newscasters to project winners because of the conflicting data. Exit polls are surveys of voters leaving the polling places and are designed to provide data about what voters are thinking, rather than to provide evidence of trends in vote counts. Political websites gave Kerry an early lead over President Bush in...

IN the end, George W. Bush won the elec tion. But the net works were afraid to report that fact to us because their exit polls showed Kerry winning. Conditioned to believe that exit polls could never be wrong, the news anchors were left stuttering and stammering. [snip]Like the network anchors on election night, I concluded that Kerry would win in a walk. But then the returns came in. In state after state, it became clear that Bush was running ahead of his performance in 2000: first, Kentucky, three points better, then Indiana, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia, all...

Fox just announced that Bush won Dixville Notch 19-7. The earlier 15-15-1 report was for another small town, NOT Dixville!

Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio - Exit polling can be conducted within 100 feet of a polling place on Election Day, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson's ruling on Monday night overturned an October directive by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to prohibit exit polling within 100 feet of precincts. Five television networks - ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox News and NBC - and The Associated Press had sued on Monday, seeking a temporary order to block Blackwell's directive that limited the exit-poll surveys, even though there had been no prior problems. "Polling activities such as these...

There is a bogus batch of exit polling numbers, supposedly released by what used to be the VNS, showing Kerry winning several key states. Don't feel bad about being suckered. They fooled Drudge and aparrently K-LO at National Review. But they are absurd on the face. Republican sources say Pennsylvania is tied, these reports say Dems are leading by TWENTY points. They even list Michigan twice.

Great story about the exposure of the French endorsement of Kerry.

DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO THESE POLLS CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll Presumes 90% of Undecideds Go to Kerry      Nine out of ten "undecided" voters will go for John Kerry over George W. Bush? That's the assumption which allowed Gallup to alter its final pre-election poll, from a 49 to 47 percent lead for Bush amongst "likely voters," to a 49-49 tie. "Democrat ties Bush nationally," declared the subhead under a Monday USA Today front page story, about the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, in which reporter Susan Page's lead touted how "Kerry has erased President Bush's modest lead." She explained that "Gallup's formula...