Hey, if the loonie right can pile on to the mainstream media, we here at the loonie open-to-considered-speculation-of-conspiracy-theory left can dis on the MSM too.

Here's the Times on the exit poll fiasco:

The new $10 million polling system used by many news organizations to predict the outcome of the presidential race had a number of problems that led to the early erroneous impression that John Kerry was heading for victory, according to a report prepared by the system's architects.

The report, written by Joe Lenski and Warren Mitofsky and obtained by The New York Times, details systemic glitches that skewed the data in ways of which several news organizations, who paid tens of thousands of dollars for the service, were not aware.

In some cases, the report said, survey takers could not get close enough to the polls to collect adequate samples of voters opinion. They were often stopped by legal barriers devised to keep people electioneering - not necessarily bona fide poll canvassers - away from voters.

The report also theorized that the poll results more frequently overstated support for Mr. Kerry than for President Bush because the Democratic nominee's supporters were more open to pollsters. Whatever the case, according to the report, the surveys had the biggest partisan skew since at least 1988, the earliest election the report tracked.

What a lukewarm explanation. Sounds more to me like they have no idea why stuff didn't turn out as it was supposed to.

I believe exit polls have proven to be extraordinarily accurate, historically speaking. Someone should look into this and see if it's actually true.