Two deliberately fake polls were released, one in California and another in Wisconsin, by a company seemingly established to do these two polls. They said it was a social experiment. Was it? Or was it something more sinister? Polls sway public opinion.
Noah Goldberg, a reporter for the LA Times, reached out repeatedly last week to Median Strategies, asking to speak with their head of polling. After I reached out repeatedly, they told me they were discontinuing their polling operation, and then they admitted their poll was fake.
A poll claiming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was leading Councilmember Nithya Raman by a wide margin — and picking up support from most voters who supported Spencer Pratt in the mayoral primary — was bogus, the company behind the poll acknowledged Monday.
The fake poll by Median Strategies showed Bass leading Raman by nearly 12 percentage points ahead of the Nov. 3 mayoral runoff, and said the results were based on a survey of 560 Los Angeles voters between July 30 and Aug. 5.
It said it had a 4.1% margin of error.
Bass cheered the results after the fake survey was released last week. “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” Bass posted on X from her campaign account, citing Median Strategies as the source. The post has since been deleted.
NEW: I reached out repeatedly last week to Median Strategies, asking to speak with their head of polling.
After reaching out repeatedly, they told me they were discontinuing their polling operation, then they admitted their poll was fake. https://t.co/yE8GNuzG6Q
— Noah Goldberg (@Noah__Goldberg) August 17, 2026
The Fake Hong Poll
Another fake survey released by the group, Median Strategies, claimed that Francesca Hong was leading the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor by more than 20 percentage points. She went on to lose by less than one percentage point.
On Monday, Median Strategies withdrew those results, saying they “should not be treated as genuine polling data.”
Median Strategies was created as a short-term social experiment examining how purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.
They didn’t bother to withdraw it until now, after the LA Times Reporter Noah Goldberg made a point of it.
“This poll was reported on by a news outlet,” a Bass campaign spokesperson said. “Any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”