As someone who has tried to have it both ways on this issue, I found most fascinating this story about Time magazine’s “most influential” poll being “influenced” by a cabal of determined hackers.
Bottom line: If you take anything you see in an online poll at face value — or at any value, for that matter — you are making an unjustifiable leap of faith.
Make that double if the poll is on Time.com.
Ah, but you’re saying that just because Time couldn’t manage to fend off the manipulators doesn’t mean no one can do it? True enough.
Now tell me how we — or your average reader — can tell the legit from the rigged.
