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Fox News anchor Melissa Francis shocked some of the liberal media when she admitted she does not put much trust in polling and often misleads pollsters.
The admission by Fox Business Network’s “After the Bell” co-anchor that she has “a blast” when called with polling questions raised some eyebrows on Thursday.
Francis addressed the pearl-clutching liberals on Twitter about comments she made during a segment on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” on Thursday, apparently shocking CNN’s Oliver Darcy as well when she declared that “polling is in fact garbage.”
Francis revealed how she will “toy” with pollsters who call her during an “Outnumbered” segment addressing the removal of Brad Parscale as Trump campaign manager, and current polling on the presidential race. She noted how she has been polled twice recently and how her demographics must make her “popular” with pollsters.
“Because I’m not affiliated with a party, I am married, I have three children,” she said. “I think I am a woman of a certain age, so I am sort of the vote that people are looking for. I have a blast when they call me.”
“None of the information—sometimes I’m somebody who voted for [New York Mayor Bill] de Blasio but now I was thinking about Trump,” Francis added. “Sometimes it just depends how I toy with these folks.”
The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona flagged the segment in a tweet, asking “are Fox News hosts now claiming they openly lie to pollsters to help push the narrative that all the polls are wrong?”
Wait, are Fox News hosts now claiming they openly lie to pollsters to help push the narrative that all the polls are wrong?
“Sometimes I’m somebody who voted for de Blasio, now I’m thinking about Trump, sometimes it just depends how I toyed with these folks.” pic.twitter.com/i6mbjnLLO0
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) July 16, 2020
“Any pollster who calls me – I do not tell the truth,” Francis replied. “It’s not their business. But I misled them left and right in equal measure. Polling is in fact garbage. I also do *always* disclose where I work and ask from whom they purchased my information.”
That comment got the attention of CNN’s media reporter who felt he had to weigh in on the “remarkable admission” from someone at Fox News.
Rather remarkable admission here from a Fox News host. I wonder how her colleagues in the polling unit feel about this. https://t.co/5QAY9AAekd
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 16, 2020
When Baragona followed up on Twitter, asking Francis if this meant she saw her own network’s polling also as “garbage,” she responded: “I don’t trust any polling at all based on my personal experience.”
I don’t trust any polling at all based on my personal experience. https://t.co/lFAzZsuE5B
— Melissa Francis (@MelissaAFrancis) July 16, 2020
She later remarked in another tweet that she didn’t know anyone else who had been polled but that she has been contacted by a pollster “20 times in the past 5 years,” adding how this has “undermined my own personal confidence in polling, that is my opinion.”
When I ask others if they have ever been polled, I’ve never had anyone sat “yes” to me. But I have personally been polled more than a 20 times in the past 5 years. (I always tell them where I work.) That has undermined my own personal confidence in polling, that is my opinion.
— Melissa Francis (@MelissaAFrancis) July 16, 2020
Baragona covered the comments by Francis in his piece for The Daily Beast, promoting the article in a tweet declaring that the Fox anchor said “she deliberately misled pollsters on the phone, resulting in her eventually admitting that she doesn’t even trust her own network’s highly trusted polling.”
In the article, he was sure to point out that “Twitter sleuths” reveal that Francis “has a history of boosting polling data that supports various Fox-friendly narratives.”
Though Baragona’s exchange with Francis prompted many responses on Twitter, it seemed like Darcy’s urge to weigh in created the most entertainment on the issue.
The captain of the Karen brigade (and all around zero who posed as a conservative to cash a check and then sold his soul to fetch coffee at CNN) speaks! 👇🏻👇🏻 https://t.co/LgWrLcwYrM
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) July 17, 2020
Ironic: anyone working for CNN complaining someone won’t tell the truth. Dude, it’s your company business model.
— Attila the Honeybun. (@TimMansplainsIt) July 16, 2020
Cut him some slack. He’s just happy @brianstelter is letting him post tonight.
— David Paul (@HarleyDavid66) July 17, 2020
Your are right. She should have said polls are garbage, like @CNN.
— Mr Bill didn’t kill himself (@DelawareSold) July 17, 2020
I don’t tell them either. What difference does it make where she works. Her opinions are her business.
— Lesley Willard (@WillardLesley) July 16, 2020
It’s really none of their business is it Oliver, but keep ramping up the fake indignation.
— Benjamin Roberts (@bennoba) July 17, 2020
What’s remarkable is you stalking everyone who works at Fox News and then you tweeting about it. It’s really kind of creepy.#TheFive
— Deplorable Petr (@PragueArtist) July 16, 2020
Um, yeah. Doesn’t everybody mess with pollsters? They are like the modern telemarketer.
You call me, you consent to whatever ride I take you on. Hang up at any time. I’m not under oath for a poll.
— Indexer (@Indexer14) July 17, 2020
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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