In response to intense pressure from Congress, the national TV networks agreed two decades ago to stop broadcasting the results of exit polls before the voting ended everywhere. But in recent weeks, that promise has been breached. Before the Michigan primary, ABC's Peter Jennings and writers for Slate, the online magazine, posted early exit polling information on the Internet while people were still voting in that state. Jennings apologized for his mistake, but Slate editor Jack Shafer defended the move. To prevent future leaks, Voter News Service, the consortium of news organizations that conducts the exit polls, has announced it will no longer make the most important parts of the exit polling data available to the news media until the balloting is concluded.
Polls are a powerful tool.
The people who create them and use them have a bigger responsibility than they seem to recognize. All rights reserved.