A Fox News executive sent a memo Tuesday afternoon reminding television producers and the politics team that unscientific online polls “do not meet our editorial standards.”
Dana Blanton, the vice president of public-opinion research at Fox News, explained in the memo obtained by Business Insider that “online ‘polls’ like the one on Drudge, Time, etc. where people can opt-in or self-select … are really just for fun.”
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At least three Fox News hosts cited unscientific online polls in the hours after Monday night’s presidential debate to suggest Donald Trump emerged as the winner of the political showdown.
Trump had come out ahead in a slew of unscientific polls, or polls in which the sample of participants did not accurately reflect the sample of viewers who watched the debate. Such polls are almost always discounted by professional pollsters and analysts.
The only scientific survey conducted in the debate’s immediate aftermath was the CNN/ORC instant poll, which showed that viewers thought Hillary Clinton handily defeated Trump. Respondents to a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday also said, 49% to 26%, that Clinton bested Trump in the debate.
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Host Sean Hannity, who has led the charge citing the unscientific polls, continued to do so Tuesday night, after the memo went out.
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Brian Kilmeade, a host of “Fox & Friends,” also referred to the online polls during an interview with a Trump official Wednesday morning.
“The online polls show you guys won in overwhelming margins,” he said, a comment for which Trump later thanked him on Twitter.
A representative for the network did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday morning about the hosts’ comments.
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- Discussion
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Fox News actually had to send out a memo to on air staff reminding them not to report fake news https://t.co/oawnr41qHb
— Leon Wolf (@LeonHWolf) September 28, 2016
For that matter, Fox’s own polls are suspect. All of the media polls are.
Who knew Fox News has standards?
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