A Pollster Just Admitted Faking Its Numbers, and The Fallout Is Huge!https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/10/21/a-pollster-just-admitted-faking-its-numbers-and-the-fallout-is-huge-n4958532A polling firm that spent months pumping out numbers in key races across the country admitted Tuesday evening that nearly all of them were fake.
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In its statement, Wedgewood cast itself as a kind of whistleblower. "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," the firm said.
It then described what it claimed was the project’s goal. "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 scrutinization exists in media and public commentary? The short answer: Far too easy."
The statement also turned to the aggregators that published its work. "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," Wedgewood claimed.
Next, the firm addressed the press. "Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms-including being cited on air and in reporting by outlets such as MS NOW," it added. "The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation."
Implied but not stated in the article, Wedgewood's fauxny numbers were probably very favorable to the Dems. This would explain MSM credulity. Had the numbers favored Rs, the MSM would have split between ignoring and fact-checking the numbers. The next-level thought-question would be whether other "real" pollsters skewed their numbers to increase consistency with Wedgewood's (or their numbers were already just as skewed/fauxny).
