Is it time to axe political polling? Firm collapses after admitting its numbers were a ‘social experiment’

Median Strategies, which presented itself as an independent polling and research firm, recently shut down after the Los Angeles Times exposed it for fabricating a survey showing a large lead for Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Its other fabricated results, including one showing Francesca Hong with a large lead in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, were also revealed as part of the same operation.

After repeated inquiries from the Times, Median Strategies admitted the numbers were completely made up as a “short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.”

Once exposed, it withdrew all its prior polling releases, claimed no political funding or financial motives were involved, and shut down without revealing the