Fox News Warns Staff Against Online Polls After Hosts Cite Them Post-Debate

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gives a thumbs up alongside Fox News host Sean Hannity before the evening session of the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016. (AP ... Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gives a thumbs up alongside Fox News host Sean Hannity before the evening session of the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Monday, July 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) MORE LESS
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After multiple Fox News personalities cited online polls declaring Donald Trump had won the first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, a Fox News executive sent a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon reminding them such polls should not be cited as though they were scientifically sound.

“As most of the publications themselves clearly state, the sample obviously can’t be representative of the electorate because they only reflect the views of those Internet users who have chosen to participate,” Fox’s vice president of public-opinion research, Dana Blanton, wrote in a memo obtained by Business Insider.

The morning after the debate, Trump tweeted screenshots of multiple online instant reaction polls from websites including CNBC and Breitbart News (whose CEO, Steve Bannon, now leads Trump’s campaign) where respondents voted him the “winner” of the debate:

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that “Every on-line poll, Time Magazine, Drudge, etc., has me winning the debate. Thank you to Fox & Friends for so reporting!”

Business Insider noted multiple Fox News personalities including Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Martha MacCallum referenced the post-debate polls without noting that they did not follow the same polling practices that, say, Fox News’ polls employ: random sampling and phone number generation rather than self-selected respondents, for example, and proportional numbers of racial and gender groups relative to the national average.

“Another problem — we know some campaigns/groups of supporters encourage people to vote in online polls and flood the results,” Blanton wrote. “These quickie click items do not meet our editorial standards.”

Reached for comment, a Fox News representative pointed out to Talking Points Memo that many of the hosts who cited the bogus polls are commentators, not journalists.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    , a Fox News executive sent a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon reminding them such polls should not be cited as though they were scientifically sound.

    Awesome! Since we’re so concerned about what’s “scientifically sound”, I’ll look forward to the memo on climate change any day now.

  2. Avatar for bkmn bkmn says:

    Fox, pretending they have standards. That is rich.

  3. Fox news did a quickie poll–“Do you believe us?”

    68% said no, so Fox decided to stop using quickie polls.

  4. Comentators, you say, not journalists? Well, perhaps they should refrain from commenting on national tv when they haven’t got a clue. Well, yes, yes, I do realize that would mean some of them would have to be continually silent. I don’t see that as a bad thing, really.

  5. Duly noted the flinging of pooh from between their cage walls is still permitted.*

    *The Eric Bolling contract clause has proven difficult to amend.

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