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."
"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," Blanton wrote.
As the Fox News executive pointed out, users who participate in such polls must have internet access, be online at the time of the poll, be fans of the website in question, and self-select to participate.
"Another problem — we know some campaigns/groups of supporters encourage people to vote in online polls and flood the results," she wrote. "These quickie click items do not meet our editorial standards."
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.
I guess after the departure of Roger Ailes, Fox is starting to give a shit about those pesky facts.
After all they certainly did not have any problem reporting on those Unskewed polls back in 2012 which kept showing Mitt Romney trouncing President Obama.
I don't think that this means that they will necessarily start actually practicing journalism, but clearly the new folks in charge are tired of constantly being mocked by other news outlets and late night comedy shows.
We will watch and see if this is the beginning of a new direction, or if it is just a one off for this election cycle.
Source http://ift.tt/2cCot95
