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New Live Poll Lets Pundits Pander To Viewers In Real Time

The Onion · 2.7M views · 2009-07-10 · 3:10

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Overview

A 2009 satirical news segment from The Onion's 'In The Know' in which pundits adjust their on-air opinions in real time according to a live viewer poll. It lampoons pandering media and politics.

On Hacker News

Used as a punchline whenever commenters see consensus-driven decisions, politicians chasing public opinion, or metric-driven content.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2009–2024

Topics

Satire & parodyMedia, journalism & propaganda
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the onionsatirepunditspollsmedia

What people said

TZubiri · 2024-11 · Reference

The value of netflix is probably not only on its technical prowess and app experience, but it seems they are pretty involved in content direction through metrics. ¹ ² Sources: [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO]

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slavik81 · 2024-10 · Joke / meme

The Onion was ahead of the curve with "New Live Poll Lets Punits Pander To Viewers In Real Time". [VIDEO]

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0xDEAFBEAD · 2024-10 · Joke / meme

I would argue the defining factor of social media which separates it from blogs/forums/etc. is the ubiquitous feedback metrics, in the form of likes/downvotes/retweets/etc. Imagine attending party where whenever you finished a sentence, everyone who was listening immediately responded with a silent thumbs up / thumbs down in response. Pretty dystopian. The Onion did a sketch illustrating the problem a few years ago: [VIDEO] By this definition, HN is halfway to being social media. There are metrics, but they aren't displayed publicly.

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Sources

Video by The Onion, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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