On Tuesday, Wedgewood Polls admitted on social media that it had fabricated polling data. It called the project a “social experiment”, a wake-up call about the lack of scrutiny in the polling industry. An admission and withdrawals from aggregators. Not a criminal inquiry. Dump Guardian.

The Guardian wrote on Wednesday. FiftyPlusOne had asked for comment after checking the raw file of a Mississippi Senate survey, run on Pollfish. The firm posted the statement. FiftyPlusOne: they received the data on 19 October and found it bogus. An admission, not a trial.

The firm appeared in June. A Google Sites page, no names, no phone, no address. In July, Washington Monthly: its first Louisiana poll was “wildly wrong”. In August, Straight Arrow News. Urban Milwaukee: Francesca Hong at 30% in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, when serious polls had her far lower. Three warnings. Not Tuesday’s admission.

After the admission, Decision Desk HQ took 17 polls off its race lists and averages. The New York Times, in an editor’s note: every Wedgewood poll, off its tracker. Two gestures. Seventeen is not the Times tracker. Do not mix them. The admission reached Newsweek, The Hill, Breitbart, the Daily Beast, the Washington Examiner, Nate Silver, VoteHub. That is the Guardian’s list. It is not a conviction.

Mallory McMorrow, a Michigan state senator, said Wedgewood’s numbers dried up her donations and sent reporters after her to quit the Senate race. That is her account. It is not a criminal file. The Guardian recalls an August case: Median Strategies, an anonymous site, another “social experiment”. Another firm. It is not Wedgewood.

Dump Guardian. The rewrite rests on the Guardian and FiftyPlusOne.

Image: The New York Times Building, Eighth Avenue, 9 May 2008, Michal Osmenda, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The newsroom tower, not a Wedgewood office.

Sources consulted: FiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data — and they copped to it — FiftyPlusOne.