Fox News Pulls Out Of Election Day Polling Group, Citing 2016's Failed Predictions

MANHATTAN, NY — Fox News is pulling out of a polling partnership with the Associated Press and the five other major news networks, according to the Huffington Post. In a statement, Fox News cited last year's early and misleading exit poll results as part of the reason for leaving the group.

The Post notes that the polling data early on in the night suggested that Hillary Clinton would win North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, which would have secured the presidency for her. Obviously, that did not happen, and she went on to lose all four states.

Fox's Executive Vice President of News Jay Wallace noted that the network has had concerns about the polling for years. Indeed, many close observers of elections argue that exit polls are frequently misleading. In 2004, notably, early results suggested the election was swinging toward then-candidate John Kerry, who ended up losing the night to incumbent President George W. Bush.

But Fox has had its own on-air blunders with election results. In 2012, Karl Rove, live on Fox, famously denounced the consensus shared by Fox's behind-the-scenes analysts and other networks that President Obama had secured re-election against Gov. Mitt Romney early in the night. Of course, Romney lost that night, as the early data had predicted.

The Post notes that without Fox pitching in, the AP, CBC, NBC, ABC and CNN will either have to pay more for the polling or scale back their efforts. Read the full report at the Huffington Post.

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