Thanks for reading Politics Extra, a Political Wire newsletter.
Become a Political Wire member for exclusive analysis, a trending news page, bonus newsletters and no advertising on the site.
One rule of the internet is that everything is eventually spammed. We've seen it in our email inboxes, text messages and even Google search results.
And unfortunately we've also seen it in the election polling averages.
It was striking when the polling averages in the 2022 midterm elections shifted in favor of Republicans and suggested a red wave was coming.
But it was just political trickery, which Simon Rosenberg called "a ferocious campaign GOP campaign right now to flood the zone with their polls, game the averages, declare the election is tipping to them."
There was an unprecedented attempt to game the polling averages to change the narrative of the midterm election.
These junk polls also caused pundits to underestimate factors like abortion rights in how people would ultimately vote.
Needless to say, that red wave never came.
I'm not inclined to dismiss polling outright as there are many good pollsters trying to gauge the mood of the electorate. I don't normally dive into the crosstabs to expose an individual poll as "biased." I think it's lazy to just say "all the polls are wrong."
The polling averages are a very good way to balance out difference in polling methodologies and get some sense of what it happening out there.
But because these polling averages are so important to driving political news coverage, they're subject to being spammed.
FiveThirtyEight rolled out its 2024 polling averages yesterday -- complete with a new methodology that could help reduce the spam polls that have plagued these numbers in recent years.
Let's hope it works.
Here’s what else I noticed this week
Trump’s donors have paid $76 million of his legal fees since January 2023.
How Chinese networks clean dirty money on a vast scale.
The delusion of peak China.
A trauma surgeon on why Gaza is the worst of war zones.
Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower.
The Fed’s forecasting method looks increasingly outdated.
Detroit is emerging as America’s most unlikely real-estate boom town.
Sundar Pichai tells Google staff no more political debates in the office.
How a massive hack of psychotherapy records revealed a nation’s secrets.
Snap leans into election coverage in bid for political ads.
Voyager 1 is finally communicating intelligibly with Earth again.
Blue milk will be available in grocery stores to mark National Star Wars Day.
Things aren’t going well at NPR.
Human brains may be getting bigger.
And check this out
Get 20 cups of free coffee from Cometeer. I’ve tried this and it’s delicious.
Members only
A new episode of Trial Balloon is out just for Political Wire members.
Become a Political Wire member for exclusive analysis, a trending news page, bonus newsletters and no advertising on the site.