Perspective: Polling Errors and Media Mistakes Leading Up to 2020 Election

Issues with national polling methodology and overall media attitudes have become a prominent side story as 2020 election results begin to wind down. Many national opinion polls projected former Vice President Joe Biden to beat President Donald Trump by a significant margin in the presidential election, and gave the Democratic Party a good chance of taking control of the U.S. Senate and improving their representation in the House of Representatives. Conversely, Biden leads Trump by a close margin in the presidential race, and Republicans seem poised to keep their Senate majority and add seats to their House total as of Friday evening. Voices on all sides have focused criticism on the mainstream media and national pollsters; pollsters for collecting poor data and failing to learn from 2016's mistakes, and the media for purportedly following the narrative set by the polls instead of doing thorough journalism. Some right-rated voices expressed more pessimism about the media's ability to correct its alleged failures and better mitigate political bias.