Fake Polls Are a Real Problem. A Regulator’s Threats Are Not the Fix

There is a real scandal in political polling this fall, and it deserves attention. A self-described polling firm called Wedgewood admitted this month that most of its data was made up, describing the operation as a test of how easily a fake pollster could win credibility. The New York Times removed 15 of its surveys from its tracker. A Michigan Senate candidate, Mallory McMorrow, said a Wedgewood poll showing her far behind dried up donations and demoralized volunteers. Another outfit admitted in August to fabricating results, and an aggregator has stopped collecting data from a third after questions about its authenticity.

So when Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, warned on Wednesday that broadcasters could violate their regulatory obligations by airing what he called entirely fake polls and suppression polls, he was pointing at something that exists. That is the strongest version of his case, and it should be acknowledged plainly: fabricated surveys can distort a race, mislead donors and voters, and nobody is served when networks repeat them without checking.

But look at what Carr actually did. He claimed a significant surge in such polls without identifying a single one or offering evidence, Reuters reported. He suggested that airing them could run afoul of the agency’s news distortion rules and its ban on broadcast hoaxes. And he did it the same week a Reuters/Ipsos poll put President Trump’s approval at 31 percent, the lowest of either of his terms, and days after Trump said publicly that many polls are rigged. The president has also called on Carr to punish journalists, including an NBC anchor he dislikes.

The context matters because of who is speaking. The FCC licenses broadcast stations. When its chairman hints that coverage of polls could trigger regulatory trouble, every news director has to weigh whether reporting an unflattering survey is worth the risk to a license. This is the same commission that ordered an unusual early license review for all eight ABC stations owned by Disney earlier this year. A warning from that office does not read as friendly advice.

It also misstates the law. As the FCC itself describes it, news distortion requires a deliberate falsification of a significant fact, not an honest mistake or a poll that turns out to be wrong. Anna Gomez, the commission’s lone Democrat, put it well: pollsters who intentionally mislead the public should be held accountable, but broadcasters who report publicly available polling in good faith should not be punished when a survey misses.

The better answers to fake polls are the ones already working. An independent aggregator caught Wedgewood. A newspaper corrected its tracker and said so. Professional groups for survey researchers publish disclosure standards, and newsrooms can insist on them: who paid, how respondents were reached, how many, and when. Those are the tools of a free press policing itself, and they work better than the threat of a federal investigation.

Voters are about to decide who controls Congress. They are entitled to the full range of reputable polling, including surveys the president does not like, and to news organizations that make editorial choices without looking over their shoulders at a regulator. Carr should drop the vague threats. Broadcasters should keep reporting the polls that meet professional standards, keep rejecting those that do not, and explain their choices to the public.