6 chapters across the catalog
Jackson Town Council, Liz Cheney Support in Wyoming
Jim Rooks of the Jackson Town Council expressed strong support for Liz Cheney despite her statewide loss to Harriet Hageman. Reports indicate Cheney won 75% of the vote in Jackson, though some analysts question the validity of this specific data point. Cheney has filed paperwork for a new political organization called The Great Task, based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Associated Press, Election Night Data Feed Complaints
An anonymous TV professional reported that local news stations were overwhelmed by the speed at which the Associated Press (AP) called state results on election night, sometimes with 0% of precincts reporting. Many stations have since requested features to bypass the AP data feed in future elections. The AP is described as an "incestuous" part of the news industry that exerts significant control over the national narrative.
Congressman Louie Gohmert discussed reports that Scytl, a company headquartered in Barcelona with servers in Frankfurt, was responsible for aggregating U.S. election data. Gohmert referenced a German tweet claiming U.S. Army forces seized Scytl's servers. He expressed concern over potential government corruption and the role of foreign-hosted data in the election process.
Facebook has granted a group of academics called "Social Science One" access to 2.2 billion records to study how social media influences elections. The initiative is backed by $25 million from various nonprofits, including the Knight Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation. Critics express concern over the mass sharing of user data with researchers and question the actual impact of social media on voter behavior.
Obama 2012 Campaign, Facebook Data Ingestion, and Rentrak
A 2012 presentation by Carol Davidson of Rentrak reveals that the Obama campaign "rocked" Facebook's privacy policies to ingest the entire social network of the United States. Unlike the 50 million users cited in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Obama campaign had access to the full network because Facebook had not yet restricted "friends of friends" data access. This "smoking gun" clip suggests a massive double standard in how the media treats Democratic versus Republican data mining.
The hosts discuss the "Deez Nuts" presidential candidate phenomenon, which they describe as a prank intended to expose the absurdity of 2016 election polling. They argue that major media outlets dropped the story once it began making their data look foolish. A donor using the name "Deez Nuts" from White Court, Alberta, is thanked for a $200 contribution.
