Be heard and make your mark
Yesterday at about 4pm I sent out the following email to the One Nation mailing list:
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Balson [mailto:gwb@gwb.com.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 October 1998 4:05 PM
Subject: On-line poll on One Nation's future
Dear One Nation supporter in NSW
You might like to participate in THE AUSTRALIAN on-line poll which asks:
Do you think One Nation will continue to be a force in Australian politics.
See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp
Currently we only have 14 saying "yes" in just 86 votes...
Be heard and make your mark
GWB
At 9pm last night I received the following email:
Scott Balson Your e-mail must have worked. As of
now it's 366 Yes, 235 No.
That's pretty good for "The Australian" readers.
Cheers,
Paul
Then at 10.25pm last night the following prophetic words:
Thanks Scott,
that poll will be rigged by The Australian as the latest is 400 for and 266 against.
Martin
This morning at 5am I went to have a look at the latest results and found that the survey above was still there but the results page was now replaced with the following statement (click on small image for full page):
The file was apparently pulled when The Australian updates its news.
Here's the proof:
Well, I voted yes at 12:09 AM Thursday and the poll was looking much better then. Of cause I voted yes.
Regards,
Mike.
then 20 minutes later:
I've tried responding to the survey, but have had problems.
It is 12:30 a.m. my time. I was able to pull up the article but when I submitted
my yes vote the survey would not respond. This morning I tried and was not
able to pull up the article.
Daniel
Here are some questions you might like to ask The Australian:
Why was the page removed and who by?
What were the results before the page was removed?
Will they ever be published and, if not, why have a poll in the first place?
How legitimate can newspaper polls by New Limited be considered if this is how they react to a poll which does not, apparently, fit their agenda?
Etc...
You can send THE AUSTRALIAN an email from this address, and consider carefully the balance behind what you read in News Limited papers in future.
Of course, News Limited are not alone in vote or poll rigging. Who can ever forget the classic vote rigging by Channel 9's "60 Minutes" last year.