FCC Warns Broadcasters Against Airing Fake Polls After Pollster Admits Fabricating Data
A fabricated polling firm gained credibility with major media outlets, and its polls likely contributed to Mallory McMorrow’s exit from the Michigan Senate race.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr warned broadcast networks that airing fake polls could violate their obligations.
Carr wrote on X:
During this election season, there has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm.
Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis.
The FCC takes these issues seriously. Broadcasters are prohibited by the terms of their federal licenses from engaging in News Distortion or promoting Broadcast Hoaxes. It is important that broadcasters comply with their public interest obligations. After all, the country benefits greatly when Americans can trust and rely on the media to report the news fairly and accurately.
Broadcasters are advised to avoid engaging in News Distortions or running Broadcast Hoaxes by airing Polls that would violate their regulatory obligations. If broadcasters believe they should provide their viewers with additional context and information about Polls they have covered, they can now take those actions consistent with FCC regulations.
During this election season, there has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm.
Many…
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) October 21, 2026
Carr’s announcement comes a day after we learned that Wedgewood Polls admitted it fabricated its data as part of an experiment to expose the polling industry:
Wedgewood Polling, an experimental project to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry, makes this public statement.
Having previously worked in the polling and research sector, we watched as the public’s trust in polling eroded alongside a rise in unverified, low-quality methodology. We wanted to test a simple hypothesis: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little scrutiny exists in media and public commentary?
The short answer: Far too easy.
“Despite having no history, formal credentials, or real data behind the vast majority of our releases, Wedgewood Polling was added to major polling aggregators, including The New York Times, FiftyPlusOne, and VoteHub, and repeatedly treated as a legitimate data source,” the statement continued.
Being cited by those aggregators gave Westwood Polling credibility and put the polls on national media platforms, including MS NOW.
The polling industry needs major reform. Our statement below: pic.twitter.com/Sj8JLYgply
— Wedgewood Polls (@WedgewoodPolls) October 20, 2026
Wedgewood Polls only admitted to the experiment after FiftyPlusOne uncovered what they did.
Democrat Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Michigan Senate race when Wedgewood showed her down by 9% to Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens.
Wedgewood also polled Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, and Texas.
McMorrow blasted Wedgewood on X:
As one of the candidates featured in these polls – the infamous one in late June that showed me plummeting into single digits (which was at odds with our internals) – here’s the impact of this “experiment”
– Donations dried up
– Volunteers were devastated and pleading for guidance on what to do
– Reporters hounded me with calls to drop outSure, a point was proven. Polling is broken. But tens of thousands of people poured their hearts, time, energy, hard-earned money into something they believed in – for a year-and-a-half, and it was treated like a game. Our volunteers gave their all. And then some. I felt like I had let so many of them down.
To be extremely clear, Michigan Democrats are locked in to beat Mike Rogers. We WILL send @AbdulElSayed to the US Senate.
But between crap like this, endless fundraising texts that drive supporters away with spammy fake deadlines and trash “match” claims, scam PACs run rampant for firms to grift without actually supporting candidates, undisclosed content creators pushing content out either misrepresenting themselves as residents of states they don’t live in or hiding whether they were paid and by who so they could make a buck, and the tidal wave of dark money ads — I hope Democrats are ready to blow up the system with campaign finance and transparency reforms.
Trust is already at an all-time low. We don’t get out of this mess without rebuilding trust.
And media – who loves to ride the drama of a pollercoaster – needs to take a hard look at what’s legitimate and what’s not.
If this teaches us anything – DON’T GET COMPLACENT AND DON’T TRUST THE POLLS.
LOCK IN. SIGN UP FOR A CANVASSING SHIFT. LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS.
As one of the candidates featured in these polls – the infamous one in late June that showed me plummeting into single digits (which was at odds with our internals) – here's the impact of this "experiment"
– Donations dried up
– Volunteers were devastated and pleading for… https://t.co/kJL9N7o7X3— Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) October 21, 2026
Wedgewood Polling is the second firm that admitted to fake polling.
In August, Median Strategies shut down after The Los Angeles Times reported that its poll showing Mayor Karen Bass with a 12-point lead was fake.
“Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification,” the firm admitted.
So this is pretty wild: A polling firm that came out of nowhere to show Francesca Hong with a 23-point lead over David Crowley in the Wisconsin primary has shut down and said its whole operation was bogus pic.twitter.com/QTmlXkvGPC
— Brett LoGiurato (@BrettLoGiurato) August 18, 2026
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Comments
Statement by McMorrow: “Trust is already at an all-time low. We don’t get out of this mess without rebuilding trust.”
Translation by Paula: “We’re not going to get out of this mess.”
‘Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis.’ That basic journalist ethics’ part will leave the entire Democrats political apparatus totally perplexed.
Exactly what is “basic journalist ethics,,?” Is it : publish the story that fits your biases, confirms your preferred narrative, gives you power/control and lines your pockets, while suppressing the actual truth? That sounds like their “basic ethics” meaning they have none.
Exactly.
I have always suspected the polls aren’t accurate. They are usually statistically insignificant, based on the number of people polled vs the overall population that votes. Now we are finding out some are just made up. Follow the money I guess.
Polling has become less accurate since the rise of the cellphone. Most people, myself included, do not answer unknown numbers or the numbers are automatically blocked. This is more prevalent for Republicans than Democrats. Republicans are also less likely to either do polling or answer truthfully. Pollsters have not figured out how to get past this as we have seen the last few elections. Remember Hillary was going to win in a landslide and Kamala was going to win every swing state?
At what point does this vote suppression election interference become… election interference?
Obviously, only when it negatively affects Democrat candidates.
Oh, right. Doh.
You be at me to it. I was going to ask that exact question in those exact words.
Well played.
I am a master of the irrefutable obvious.
In the MSM there are no Journalists as they just report propaganda. I do not trust polls as they can be twisted as they are given and how they are given to. Adding in cell phones that now allow numbers to move there is often no real capture of a poll of the area.
Several ‘new’ polling outfits retrospectively claiming to have been engaged in a ‘social experiments’ re whether their far too rosy scenarios would be included into respected polling aggregates and/or move/push election outcomes. At best their acts were unethical b./c their subjects didn’t consent and the negative impact exceeded the limited target. Once they achieved inclusion that was the point to have come clean. Instead they remained active until discovered only admitting/claiming ‘social experiment’ after the damage was done.
Bottom line is these polls were always intended to dramatically mislead. Not just other polls or campaigns but readers/voters. Not including pop up/new polling outfits into any aggregate polling nor even reporting on them until they have a track record of a several election cycles seems one part of the answer. The other is to demand as the FCC does that news organizations confess their own errors (more like these pop up polls showed them what their ideological hearts desired and they included/reported on it as holy writ b/c they wanted it to be true) or face consequences. Finally we need to charge those responsible for these polling ‘experiments’ for fraud if nothing else fits.
The solution is offering licenses for the same broadcast space to competitors. You hear the station closest to you. There’s no reason for one company to have a clear channel.
“I hope Democrats are ready to blow up the system with campaign finance and transparency reforms.”
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤡
Yeah, I’m gonna hold my breath for the Democrats to reform campaign finance and transparency.
Like Maura Healy’s “gun law reforms,” that “reform away” your legal ownership of the most popular rifle in America. To a Democrat, “reforms” are invariably steps towards tyranny, while steps away are “loopholes.”
Oh yeah — speaking of “campaign financing reforms” and “We WILL send @AbdulElSayed to the US Senate” in the same breath really takes some chutzpah.
Modern polls are to shape public opinion not relect it.
Interesting that the candidate forced out due to fake polling was in the race against the hamas loving El Sayed. And then you have the color revolution specialist Elisa Slotkin spouting off a week ago. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences.
I really wish we had some valid data about the true extent of this reported political shift towards overt Socialism and Marxism by substantial portions of the U.S. electorate. Something has been changed, and the consequences are enormous if the extent of the embrace of Progressive authoritarianism is as pervasive as the media so proudly proclaim. It seems like every other day we are presented with purported evidence of some new insanity being eagerly affirmed by significant numbers of certain demographics. If middle aged white women, affluent IT executives, under employed college educated youth and recent immigrants have truly signed on to the Revolution then we should be calling them out about that relentlessly, and comprehensively monitoring their attempts to expand their influence into vulnerable voting segments or into outright electoral fraud. This means following the money, and clearly identifying those who are actively involved in funding this subversion. Then there must be some actual consequences that make it clear to them that we will not go down without a real fight. Right now they obviously believe that victory is inevitable, and that confidence attracts the insecure. We have to prove that it is not inevitable at all , and that there are clear rewards for resistance that can inspire hope, to counter the despair the Left is so busily exploiting.
The next “Brave New World” of politics …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4BgPrBziAE
A little late in the game for that, isn’t it? A lot of BS polls have already had an impact on early voting.
In late 2016, Mackey — who used the Twitter handle “Ricky Vaughn” and had about 58,000 followers — posted a series of images and captions encouraging Hillary Clinton supporters to “avoid the line” and “vote from home” by texting “Hillary” to 59925 . The DOJ alleges this was part of a conspiracy to interfere with voters’ constitutional right to vote by disseminating fraudulent, legally invalid voting instructions U.S. Department of Justice.
… are fake polls less interference ?
This is how communists win!
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