Wedgewood Admits Most Polls Were Fabricated

Overview

• Wedgewood Polls publicly said the vast majority of its published surveys were made up and framed the work as an experiment to test media trust.
• Data journalists at FiftyPlusOne analyzed raw files and found respondent and transaction ID patterns that did not match Pollfish’s expected metadata, which supported the conclusion that the datasets were fraudulent.
• Investigators attempted to replicate Wedgewood’s questionnaire and confirmed multiple anomalies, and Pollfish verified the expected behavior of the ID fields that Wedgewood’s files did not show.
• FiftyPlusOne says it had been preparing an exposé and accused Wedgewood of issuing its statement only after the investigators confronted them, while Wedgewood said one Nebraska poll was the only real survey.
• The episode exposes weak vetting by poll aggregators and newsrooms and highlights a growing risk that off‑the‑shelf tools and AI make it easier to create realistic but fake polling data, putting pressure on media to tighten validation and disclosure practices.