Rigged NPR Online Poll Shows Disinformation Campaign

[Ian David]

Rigged NPR Online Poll Shows Disinformation Campaign

The battle for the hearts and minds of Americans has officially hit the internet. The recently rigged NPR poll (Obama vs. Fox) demonstrates how a small skirmish over an online poll is symptomatic of a much larger pandemic of propaganda and is far more widespread than commonly known.

Raw Story recently detailed how various conservative websites have rigged (also known as gamed, or more commonly online as ‘freeped’) yet another online political poll. This most recent freeped poll was on NPR asking “In White House vs. Fox News War Of Words, Who Gets Your Vote?”

The results might surprise you. A resounding 78% of the votes were cast in favor of supporting Fox News over Barack Obama.



Seems a bit strange for a poll on the supposedly liberal NPR on the supposedly liberal internet to generate such a tilted result, doesn’t it? As suspected the poll was rigged by various conservative websites, such as Newsbusters, Republican National Committe on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, “Patriots” sites, and most of all, the Free Republic. This is not the first time this has happened either. There has been a strong pattern of freeping polls done for many years, at least dating back to the pro-Bush ‘fixing’ of a Der Spiegel poll in 2004.

<snip>

The Democratic Underground often encourages members to counter the freeping of polls. Although some would say this is freeping in and of itself, the DU appears to have no original calls to artificially inflate numbers of polls except in cases where it has already taken place by conservative websites. Recent examples include gay marriage in Maine, abortion rights, stem-cell research, racism, the NAACP, and the Armed Forces There was even one mention of the GOP directly asking for freeping:

More:
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2009/11/01/rigged-npr-online-poll-shows-disinformation-campaign/


See also:

Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?
http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Their philosophy is, and always has been, "If you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em".

[RKP5637]

2. Republicans = Cheats and Liars all the way all the time! n/t

[harun]

4. When your philosophy is despised by > 1/2 of the electorate you have to cut corners.

[RKP5637]

11. I hope it stays that way too. I shudder to think what would happen if the fools out ...

of power were to get in as they seem to grow worse and worse each day. They sound absolutely deranged and delusional.

[harun]

12. The NAZI's were more mainstream than the new Pukes.

[RKP5637]

14. They were, weren't they. I hope the new Pukes don't get any clever ideas... n/t

[alstephenson]

3. The polls ALL stink.

[glinda]

10. Thanks to the Freeps they are now irrelevant. So how does that serve the people?

[ThePantaloon.com]

5. The 2000 and 2004 Presidential exit polls

I've always found polls interesting. According to the networks' exit polls, in 2000 and 2004, Bush lost. Normally, in another country, if the exit polls are wrong, this is an indication of voting fraud. Hmmm....

[Chemical Bill]

6. That is interesting, isn't it. n/t

[the other one]

7. I've seen many calls to DU a poll

So I don't think this is really limited to the right wing.

Sorry to point that out.

[pscot]

9. I'm not aware that the DNC

or one of the cable networks has ever asked DUers to try to rig a poll.

[aikoaiko]

8. Open online polls are what they are.

It would be nice to think that DU is above the same practice that the author levels at Freeper and conservative sights, but that's not what I see. But in truth the only requirement for a call to "DU a poll" is that we aren't winning by a vast majority.

So goes the internet wars.

[anigbrowl]

13. It's not rigged unless the organizers of the poll preset the outcome

/pedant

Anyway, we 'DU the polls' frequently, and anyone who tthinks online polls are any more useful or informative than the syndicated horoscopes is a fool.