Poll showing Bass leading L.A. mayoral race by wide margin was fake: company

Right-leaning media frames the fake poll as an "experiment" that was "exposed," while left-leaning media highlights the "humiliation" of the mayor.

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This is a stored Optics snapshot.It preserves the source map and wording analysis from 8/18/2026, 1:20:13 AM.

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What happenedPoll showing Bass leading L.A. mayoral race by wide margin was fake: company.

What changedThe left frames it as "Mayor humiliated after poll showing her up big revealed as fake". The right frames it as "Fake Poll Showing Karen Bass's Lead Over Nithya Raman Now Exposed As Experiment".

ConfidenceMedium. 3+ sources across at least two bias buckets with comparable news formats.

Archive healthLive match · 3 sources · 3 buckets · comparable news format

WORDING GAP

75WORDING GAP

3 sources · 3 bias buckets · Medium confidence

Different Spin. The left frames it as "Mayor humiliated after poll showing her up big revealed as fake". The right frames it as "Fake Poll Showing Karen Bass's Lead Over Nithya Raman Now Exposed As Experiment".

SOURCE MAP TIMELINE

Aug 17, 9:07 PM: Raw Story joined the source map.

Aug 17, 9:14 PM: KTLA5 (Nexstar, Los Angeles) joined the source map.

Aug 17, 9:47 PM: RedState joined the source map.

Now: Wording Gap is 75/99 and story health is live match · 3 sources · 3 buckets · comparable news format.

ARCHIVED SOURCES

Center ·News report

KTLA5 (Nexstar, Los Angeles)3h ago

Poll showing Bass leading L.A. mayoral race by wide margin was fake: company

fake

A poll claiming incumbent Mayor Karen Bass was leading council member Nithya Raman by a wide margin in the Los Angeles mayoral race was fake, according to the company behind the survey. Med...

Open source

Right ·News report

RedState1h ago

Fake Poll Showing Karen Bass's Lead Over Nithya Raman Now Exposed As Experiment

Fake PollExposed As Experiment

Open source

Left ·News report

Raw Story1h ago

Mayor humiliated after poll showing her up big revealed as fake

humiliatedfake

A polling company that claimed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass held a commanding lead over challenger Nithya Raman just admitted the whole thing was fake, an elaborate experiment designed to t...

Open source