Rep. Conyers asks networks for exit poll data

[cal04]

The following letter, issued by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich), calls on the five major television networks and the Associated Press to release the raw exit poll data from the 2004 presidential election. The letter below is a facsimile; the congressman's office said an actual image of the letter will not be released until Wednesday.

The letter was sent to: Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman, Media Networks, The Walt Disney Company and President, Disney-ABC Television Group; Bob Wright, President, NBC; Gail Berman, President, FOX; Jim Walton President, CNN; Thomas Curley, President, Associated Press; and Andrew Heyward, President, CBS.

"As you are aware, the American citizenry has voiced a collective lack of faith in government to carry out fair election procedures," Conyers writes. "It is important that the Judiciary Committee access raw voter poll data so that discrepancies between those numbers and certified election results can be investigated...Without the raw data, the Committee will be severely handicapped in its efforts to show the need for serious election reform in the United States."


Letter Page 1
http://rawstory.rawprint.com/1204/conyers_exit_polls_1221.php

[Straight Shooter]

1. Way to go. Back them up against the wall and see what excuses they make.

If the media cares about the truth, they will be forthcoming.

They've got nothing to hide, right? Let them prove it.

[Election Mess]

11. Big Media should demand refund from Mitofsky for shoddy exit poll work

Not only should the MSM hand over the results to the courts, but they should demand refund from Mitofsky. Maybe then he'll start to defend his data. That could help blow the doors off this thing.

http://www.passinglane.com/elections

[librechik]

2. now it's our turn--urge them to be good citizens and open this up!

send your opinions through the media blaster at top of forum.

[roguevalley]

3. I love this man. I'm sending him a card.

[Botany]

4. Conyers is on this like a hawk on winter power line.

Every see a hawk sit on a power line and watch for his meal? Conyers is our Hawk.
He is too old to care what the repugs do in return and too smart to fall for their
lies.

The exit poll were not wrong. I live in Ohio and saw and heard vote fraud first hand.
I am sure he is on to something big.

:kick:

ttp://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1012

p.s. prayers and blessings to the dead and their families from bush's insane war.

[StephanieMarie]

5. This is very cool

But the timing of everything is driving me nuts. Why wasn't this requested November 3?

[AmerDem]

6. Rawstory and BradBlog need major praise

Between the two, we've received more detailed info then any other news source out there.:toast:

[zapped 1]

7. agreed

kick

[MadLinguist]

8. I love his irony here

At the end of the letter, Conyers says

"We are happy to honor any confidentiality restrictions you may have on this data."

Read: You absurd lapdogs, who the hell ever heard of PRIVATE exit poll data?

[Straight Shooter]

9. No irony. There may very well be confidentiality restrictions.

I'm assuming (and might be wrong) that there is a complex contract which necessitates clauses of confidentiality between the polling companies (Mitofsky, et al.) and the media companies which hire them. The contract may include provisions which restrict the dissemination of data. Such provisions may be designed to protect either the media, or the polling companies.

This is one matter which Mitofsky has been belly-aching about, that he doesn't want his methods discerned. By analyzing the gathering of data, the method may possibly be deduced.

Conyers is allaying a very plausible fear on the part of the media in regards to their relationship with Mitofsky and other pollsters.

[MadLinguist]

10. Let us be Realists about this

The absence of the raw exit poll data cannot be about protecting Mitofsky's intellectual property rights. He has pretty much shot his methodology full of holes himself publicly.
On the PBS News Hour Mitofsky stated "we suspect that the reason was that Kerry voters were more anxious to participate in our exit polls than the Bush voters."
Further, since he has said that he sees no reason to doubt or discredit official election returns, he has admitted that his polling must have been deeply and systematically flawed.

Conyers asked Mitofsky for the data quite a while back, on December 3, and again on the 14th, on the assumption that there was a far better of chance of getting the data this way, than asking the media organizations of the National Election Pool for it.

I read Arnebeck's language in the brief to the Ohio Supreme Court as a further attempt along these lines, in its rather blatant flattery of Mitofsky the Marvelous Exit Poll Guru of the Millennium.

This current request of Conyers' to these media organizations is rather late in the day for actual compliance on their part. It is far better read as a finger pointing at their lack of responsibility to the public they supposedly serve. After all, they would have to EACH agree to release this data to the House Judiciary Committee. I ask you, what answer do you think Conyers would give to these questions:

ABC: watchdog or lapdog?
CBS: watchdog or lapdog?
NBC: watchdog or lapdog?
CNN: watchdog or lapdog?
Fox News Channel: watchdog or lapdog?
The Associated Press: watchdog or lapdog?

[Straight Shooter]

21. I am being a realist.

A contract is a contract, and both parties must abide by it.

I have said before in prior posts that the exit poll data should be released with the caveat of "Attorneys' Eyes Only," for such people as Mr. Conyers, and Mr. Arnebeck and his experts, to peruse and scrutinize.

I am certainly not saying that the exit poll data should be withheld. To the contrary, with the proper safeguards of confidentiality in place, it should be released at once.

[MadLinguist]

25. For Your Eyes Only

Of course, you didn't say it shouldn't be released! And yes, certainly there must be some quite specific contractual arrangements about this data. I was addressing your point that these arrangements were put into place in order to protect Mitofsky's intellectual property rights, viz, his methodology. Since Conyers and Arnebeck have failed to get Mitofsky to release the raw data, resorting to asking the people who we assume are under contract to protect Mitofsky's intellectual property (the NEP) is a move to call his bluff. Were Mitofsky to signal that he is willing to let the data be released, the NEP would be in no position to object.
As to your new (to me) suggestion that the data should be viewed only by the attorneys involved, I am less than enthusiastic because the whole problem with both the vote-counting and the exit poll data is this suffocating privatization.

[txindy]

12. We want Mitofsky's raw data

Not his methodology. So, he really hasn't a leg to stand on. If his clients acquiesce to the release of the data, he's done. If they don't, they're done.

I've been wondering who will crack first in this administration. I never really considered an ancillary thug like Mitofsky. That would be priceless!

[Quakerfriend]

14. What I don't understand is Why isn't Arnebeck asking for these

exit polls as part of the discovery phase?

[Straight Shooter]

23. Mitofsky has claimed that by studying the data in various stages

of gathering that data, the methodology can be deduced. I'm not a statistical analyst, but I can see the logic behind his argument. My problem is that he may be hiding behind those legal skirts, but it doesn't change the fact that the exit polls were correct and the release of the raw data will prove it. In proving the exit polls were correct, it will also prove the election is tainted and that manipulation and tampering occurred somewhere between the voter making a choice and the vote being tallied.

edit: I'm up too late again

[Scout1071]

13. Mitofsky......The People.....want an answer.

[fearnobush]

15. AP story on Yahoo too - Rate it a 5!!!

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041222/ap_on_re_us/election_poll_data>

[dweller]

16. Rating: 2.92 w/90 votes

you know what to do.


:kick:
dp

[dweller]

19. Rating 2.63 w/ 117 votes

um, this is going the wrong way...


It doesn't matter what we know, if no one else knows it too.

:kick:

dp

[McCamy Taylor]

17. but if they dont do what Rove tells them the FCC will PUNISH them

[KoKo]

18. What the Hell are they Hiding, anyway. If it was a clean election then

why did Blackwell pull out all the stops to thwart a recount and beforehand to disenfranchise voters? Now, we have Mitofsky and others not wanting to release the poll data for weeks.

If it's such a "clean" election then release it ALL...Why not?

[Shalom]

20. If Mitfucksy coughs up "raw" data, will it have been "fixed" ?

1. This lying piece of shit has had lots of time to cook the books.

2. Any network that refuses this request will be subjected to the most intense boycott and propaganda campaign, which will not cease until they are driven down the toilet that George Walker Bushitler came from.

[garybeck]

22. can someone just tell me

why the hell can't we see the freaking raw exit polls?? enough of this "proprietary" crap. It's OUR votes they won't let us see!!

[emcguffie]

24. pay attention to --

The media organizations say the data is still being "analyzed". Implying, I think, that they don't want to release it yet. They're probably trying to hold on to it until after the inauguration.