{"id":5115,"date":"2004-11-05T20:35:24","date_gmt":"2004-11-06T00:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/11\/05\/the-exit-polling-cartel-is-la"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:16","slug":"the-exit-polling-cartel-is-laughable-but-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/11\/05\/the-exit-polling-cartel-is-laughable-but-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"the exit polling cartel is laughable (but dangerous)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
one-breath punditry<\/strong><\/em>:<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
— It looks like the <\/span>American Antitrust Institute<\/span><\/a> called this election correctly:\u00a0\u00a0joint\u00a0exit\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\"ekg\" \"ekg<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
polling has led once again to massive errors.\u00a0 The\u00a0consequences surely could have been <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
mitigated were there competing<\/em> sources of exit poll results.\u00a0 [<\/span>Dick Morris<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Howard Klein<\/span><\/a>, <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
(through <\/span>Bainbridge<\/span><\/a>), see conspiracies; “Republicans <\/span>complain<\/span><\/a> exit polls were erroneous”, <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Wash.Times<\/em>, <\/span>Nov. 4, 2004]\u00a0 Warren Mitofsky’s <\/span><\/span>expanations<\/span><\/a> tonight on the PBS <\/span>News Hour<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
seem lame.\u00a0\u00a0 Will the DOJ<\/span><\/a> Antitrust Division finally investigate? <\/span>(our prior post\u00a0 is <\/span><\/span>here<\/span><\/a>; and<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
see AntiTrustProf<\/a>.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
don’t cry, insects!
\nwe’re all headed
\nfor the same exit<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

update<\/span><\/strong><\/em> (Nov. 9, 2004): Larry Lessig says <\/span>free the exit poll data<\/span><\/a>: “<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The Exit Polls have done enough damage to this election. My bet is that it was incompetence at Edison\/Mitofsky. But those firms owe it to this Nation to release their data totally, so that a wide range of<\/span> competent statisticians can evaluate whether and where the problem was. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“And more importantly for the blog space: If blogs are going to be something more than the CB radios of journalism, we need an ethic to treat this sort of question ethically. “<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"tiny I have often <\/span>agreed<\/span><\/a> with D.C. Bar President <\/span>John C. Keeney, Jr<\/span><\/a>., on ways to make<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
the\u00a0legal profession more responsible.\u00a0 However, I can only scoff at his <\/span>latest suggestion<\/a><\/span> on<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
how to\u00a0change “the public’s bad image of lawyers,” which can only backfire:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"laughing “[T]reat our profession (but never ourselves) more seriously, and <\/span><\/span>join me <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
in refusing <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span>to laugh at lawyer jokes<\/strong><\/em>.”\u00a0 [emphasis added; our perspective <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\"tiny On the other hand, I wish cranky Letter Writer <\/span>Dennis B. Wilson<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span>would\u00a0prescribe constructive<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
ways to alleviate the tyranny of billable-hours quotas, rather than\u00a0suggesting that John Keeney can’t <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
authoritatively promote more\u00a0pro bono<\/em> because he didn’t\u00a0undergo\u00a0enough\u00a0“tangible sacrifices” while making <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
partner. (<\/span>letters<\/span><\/a>, Washington <\/em>Lawyer<\/em>, Nov. 2004)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"tiny <\/span>TaxLawProf<\/span><\/a> seems to be mistaking server hits with “visitors”\u00a0 (as we discuss <\/span><\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>there<\/span><\/a>, where<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
we confess<\/span> “When this weblog has a 1000 page-hit day, I literally have no idea<\/em> whether the number represents <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
20 actual human beings looking in or 200, but I know that it is unlikely to be more than 200.”).\u00a0\u00a0 Before concluding<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
that the 7-month old weblog has “crossed the 200,000 visitor mark,” we suggest an audit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
a splash of spiced sake
\nfor his wrinkled face…
\nlaughter<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

crawl and laugh–
\nfrom this morning on
\na two year old!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

all haiku by <\/em><\/span>Issa<\/em><\/span><\/a>, translated by <\/em><\/span>D.G.Lanoue<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

one-breath punditry: — It looks like the American Antitrust Institute called this election correctly:\u00a0\u00a0joint\u00a0exit\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 polling has led once again to massive errors.\u00a0 The\u00a0consequences surely could have been mitigated were there competing sources of exit poll results.\u00a0 [Dick Morris and Howard Klein, (through Bainbridge), see conspiracies; “Republicans complain exit polls were erroneous”, Wash.Times, Nov. 4, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1kv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11419,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions\/11419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}