Here is a new take on an old axiom: Believe none of what you read, hear or scroll, and only half of what you see.
The local media may have been snookered by “Median Strategies”–as the Bass campaign was–into believing their ‘poll’ that Bass had a big lead over Raman in the mayor’s race, but the big loser was, again, public trust. The same outfit that now claims not merely that the poll did not really exist, but that it was Median Strategies idea of a kind of ‘thought experiment’ on how mis and disinformation gets distributed. Uh-huh.
The Bass campaign touted it on social media, then had to pull it down. Some legit media outlets carried the report, perhaps motivated by the Bass posting, but the point, planned or not, was made–that the axiom attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, believe nothing you hear and only half what you see–has surely evolved to believe none of what you read, hear or scroll and only half what you see.
Here is the story:
Median Strategies was not a polling firm that simply got an election wrong. By its own admission, it never conducted the polls it published. The anonymous operation acknowledged that its L.A. mayoral survey was fabricated, withdrew all its polling releases and said none should be treated as genuine data. But LA was not the only market where Median played their game, they also dabbled in the Wisconsin
The fake L.A. poll claimed Mayor Karen Bass led Councilmember Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points in the November runoff—50.18% to 38.39%, with 11.43% undecided. It purported to represent 560 likely voters surveyed between July 30 and August 5 and claimed a 4.1% margin of error. Median also invented a finding that approximately 85% of former Spencer Pratt voters planned to support Bass.
The bogus numbers quickly escaped Median’s tiny social-media account. The California Post published an article suggesting Pratt’s supporters could decide the race, while Fox 11 presented the poll and interviewed political strategist Dave Meraz about its supposed significance. Pratt shared the California Post story, attracting approximately 5,000 reposts and 38,000 likes, and several election-tracking accounts circulated the results.
Bass’ campaign then posted the fake poll on X, declaring, “Doing the work, showing up, and gaining momentum. Let’s do this, LA!” The post was later deleted. Her campaign said it relied on news reports and called for any bad-faith attempt to influence an election to be investigated and prosecuted. Raman’s campaign countered that Bass promoted the poll without properly vetting its source.
Median Strategies appeared online only days before the L.A. poll surfaced. Its X account began posting August 9, describing the operation as an independent, nonpartisan alternative to traditional pollsters. It had approximately 20 followers and no publicly identified executives, pollsters, clients or record of previous election work.
Its first known election release targeted Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary. Median claimed democratic socialist state Rep. Francesca Hong led Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by 23.7 points—46.3% to 22.6%. Crowley instead won the August 11 primary, defeating Hong approximately 39.8% to 39.3%. Median initially reacted as though it had merely missed the race, posting that it had gotten Wisconsin wrong “by quite a margin.” It did not disclose at that time that the numbers had been invented.
Median-branded numbers also appeared in Nevada, claiming Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo led Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford by five points, 51% to 46%. That purported poll, supposedly conducted August 7–11, was circulated by the large OpenSourceZone election account before being identified as bogus. No evidence has surfaced that Median conducted any legitimate surveys, research projects or other media ventures beyond its website, X account and fabricated releases involving Los Angeles, Wisconsin and Nevada.
After reporters began asking questions, Median said it had been created as a short-term “social experiment” testing how unverified polling information could spread through politics and the media. The people behind it refused interviews or identification. Its website claimed that no campaign, party, political action committee, media organization or outside group funded the project and that nobody involved received compensation—but those assertions remain independently unverified.
The experiment—if that is truly what it was—made its point. A polished website, a professional-looking PDF and invented methodology were enough to move fake numbers from an anonymous account into campaign messaging, news coverage and high-reach polling feeds. The unanswered question is not simply why so many people believed Median Strategies. It is who created it, what they hoped to accomplish and whether “social experiment” was the plan from the beginning—or an explanation adopted after reporters started digging.
AI helped in compiling this story.
