Exit pollsters to release election report to media (only - not to public)

[papau]

Will the 1,600-member American Association for Public Opinion Research ever see a copy? Or will they simply distribute training materials for midcareer journalists and have its members spread the word at conferences and in newsrooms where they're invited that their data is only valid outside the US or if GOPer is "winning". Or will they simply note that a 3% MOE on a 52-48 result only means that 95% of the time the race results will be between 55%-45% and 49-51%?
.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-17-exit-poll-report_x.htm

Exit pollsters to release election report to media

By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
This week, the firms that produced exit polls of voters last November will tell the news organizations that paid them what, if anything, they think went wrong.
The surveys of voters as they left polling places led to widespread speculation on Election Day that Sen. John Kerry was sweeping President Bush out of office. But whether voters will ever know what happened remains unclear.

Edie Emery, a spokeswoman for the six-member media consortium that paid for the exit polls, says representatives from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, NBC and the Associated Press want to review the report before making any decisions about what to make public.

The behind-closed-doors delivery of the report could come as soon as today. Because the report's conclusions might not be made public, the report is unlikely to appease critics who say the six media companies have moved too slowly to release information collected in the exit polls and have said too little about possible problems with those surveys.

"It's amazing to me that there's even a possibility that the report won't be released to the public," says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "There was a major national controversy involving the integrity of the news organizations and of the polling firms involved."<snip>

[liberal N proud]

1. I am sure it will be delivered directly to the LIBERAL" media

Rush Limbahhhhh
Bill Oreally
Haaaanity
...

[NationalEnquirer]

2. No worries.

No way this isn't "leaked"... heck, even DRUDGE would leak this.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Nice of them not to want to release the information directly to the public

No reason to bother us with the Gorey details. Interesting that they don't give the DNC or Kerry campaign a copy of the data. And why weren't they on the subscription list anyway?

It's ironic that the press has their freedom....not to inform the public.

[jasmeel]

4. I think it's hilarious (in a depressing way) that the Ukraine is

not mentioned ONCE in this article. Does anyone in the media remember the hoopla about the exit polls in the Ukraine? It's so f...n frustrating!!!

[jasmeel]

5. I like this snippet

"In each national election since 1992, the major television networks and AP have jointly paid for exit polls. In 2000, problems with the system contributed to mistakes that television networks made on election night - declaring Al Gore (news - web sites) the winner in Florida, then giving the state to Bush, then deciding that the state and election were too close to call. In 2002, a computer meltdown left the media with no exit poll data for national races."

Uh, Gore did win Florida--according to the NY Times. Maybe the "system" is right and something else is wrong??