Story by Maxwell Gardoce
Staff Writer
Illustration by Helena Millar
Illustrator
On Aug. 14, Karen Bass, current mayor of Los Angeles, attached an image on X
displaying in bold text, “New poll: Karen Bass widens lead in L.A. mayoral race”,
accredited to a source named Median Strategies. The post is one of numerous online,
meant to promote her reelection campaign. In this election, her conservative campaign
is pitted against that of a more progressive L.A. City Council member, Nithya Raman.
As L.A. enters a new mayoral election season, residents of the city should expect
reliability from not only major news outlets, but especially from candidates’ campaigns.
Voters depend upon trustworthy data and campaign objectives in order to determine
who their votes will go towards.
Nevertheless, even as campaigns are expected to promote valid data, with a myriad of
checks and balances, sometimes fraudulent info can make its way through the cracks.
The poll found that Bass’s approval rating among L.A. voters exceeded Raman’s by 12
points, and was amplified across social media platforms as well as news outlets like the
California Post.
Yet, just three days after the Bass campaign endorsed the poll, the data released from
perpetrator Median Strategies, was revealed to be completely fabricated.
In response to continuous outreach from the L.A. Times, Median Strategies finally gave
a public statement following the complete erasure of the company’s website shortly
after the scandal.
“Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment to examine how
purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information
ecosystem without independent verification,” they said in an email to the Times. Bass’
campaign account on X swiftly took down the post after the news broke.
The poll also referenced how the newly wide margin of approval between Raman and
Bass was fueled by supporters of Spencer Pratt, a previous Republican candidate in the
primary election. His campaign appealed to supporters of Donald Trump—using
AI-generated parody videos to promote his position in the running. Median Strategies’
poll reported that “[f]aced with a choice between the incumbent and a Democratic
Socialists of America-aligned challenger, most Pratt voters appear to be treating Bass as
the more familiar, more moderate option rather than sitting out the race,” according to
PBS.
However, there is no exception regarding the fact that voters, in all elections, are
expected to have some level of media literacy in order to tell real news from misleading
and deceptive data. Karen Bass not only took advantage of the situation and attempted
to still benefit from it, but also highlighted the lack of accountability from her
campaign.
Median Strategies is an unknown company that has declined interviews from all news
outlets besides the L.A. Times. The only purpose behind the poll was to review audience
reaction to the data rather than gathering data themselves. Following the company’s
exposure, the website for the organization was taken down.
This situation serves as a warning regarding politicians intentionally covering up
questionable situations such as the integrity of elections. The fraudulent data had
already done its damage, being circulated across major news outlets, swaying the
people’s perspective and opinion.
Poll distribution and data require more checks and balances regarding the accuracy and
honesty of data being released. In order for campaigns and news outlets in the future to
avoid situations such as these, there must be accountability and verification of
information and sources being released. This is the only manner in which campaigns
can build trust between the public and candidates.