Political polling guru Nate Silver unleashed a profanity-laced tirade after a polling operation admitted its surveys were largely fabricated.
Silver, whose career has been built around interpreting polling data, was furious after Wedgewood Polling admitted that much of its operation had been an elaborate "social experiment" designed to expose just how easily questionable statistics could infiltrate the political media ecosystem.
"Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms," the statement said. "The ease with which unverified figures were absorbed into mainstream political narratives highlights a systemic breakdown in media vetting and data aggregation."
In an episode of the Still Counting podcast alongside Galen Druke and Clare Malone, Silver made his feelings abundantly clear.
"I say go fuck yourselves. I hope you're put in jail," Silver declared, before quickly clarifying that he did not mean the threat of imprisonment "literally."
Wedgewood's operators portrayed the stunt as an experiment highlighting weaknesses in modern political polling and journalism.
Yet, Silver was in no way amused.
"People on Twitter are sometimes too kind to these enterprising college kids or whatever they are that start doing these kind of polls that are even at best kind of mediocre," he complained.
The veteran election analyst acknowledge
