THE VIEW FROM HERE - On Thursday, August 13, 2026, the California Post published the false poll that Mayor Karen Bass had a 11.8 point lead over Nithya Raman in the LA’s mayor’s race. The enticing headline was “Spencer Pratt’s Voters Could Be Deciding Factor in LA Mayor Showdown According to Latest Poll” under original by-line Justin Choi. The article continued, “Bass leads Raman 50.2% to 38.4% among runoff voters surveyed July 30 through Aug. 5.” Mayor Bass’ own campaign then repeated the false poll as if true.
Oops, More False News.
Although Mayor Bass’ campaign alleged “many” local news outlets had reported the unusual story, it appears that LA Fox 11 and California Post first reported the story (2026-8-23; 7:53 p.m. PDT). The fact that Los Angeles Times had not run the story was significant. When Bass’ campaign was later queried why it had believed the false poll, it replied that it "was reported on by multiple news outlets." What were those other media sources on which it allegedly relied?
Fake News Is Not New to Americans
On January 22, 2017, Kellyanne Conway, advisor to President Trump, in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC's Meet The Press invented the phrase “alternative facts” rather than admit that Donald Trump habitually lies. Since then, the American public has been deluged with false claims and alternative facts to satisfy and promote both the Right-Wing Narrative and the Left-Wing Narrative. While Donald Trump is noted for being the world’s most prolific fire hose of falsehoods, the Left Wing including NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc. have been promoting the most vicious anti-Semitic filth that Jews are committing genocide in Gaza; (when they say “Israel,” they never mean the 2 million Arab Israeli citizens). Nithya Raman joined with Hasan Piker in his vile defamation of Jews by agreeing that Jews are committing genocide in Gaza. This blood libel is worse than even the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which never went so far as to accuse us Jews of committing genocide. Thus, Americans live in a nation where leaders lie about the most inconsequential of matters, ranging from the trivial, such as the size of Trump’s inaugural crowd to the most outrageously obscene falsehood that Jews are committing genocide.
Back to the Alleged Rahil Prakash
It is alleged that he is a 21-year-old graduate of UC Santa Cruz, who created a false company called Median Strategies three days before his company released the false poll. When contacted by The Guardian, he claimed he had done it as short-term social experiment to show how false data could be accepted by the national media. While the information which The Guardian reports could be correct, it could be false. When the LA Times contacted the same person, he asserted via text that everything The Guardian had said was accurate. If Prakash lied once, wouldn’t’ he lie twice? Where are the background facts? As we all know, everything Prakash told the Guardian is true and the purported author is who he/she claims to be. After all, it would be far too difficult to ascertain if Mr. Prakash actually exists. How would a reporter do that? Look in the UC Santa Cruz yearbook? Send a reporter to the campus and ask questions? Look at a list of recent graduates. So, we are expected to blindly accept the word from someone while he is admitting that he concocted a totally false poll?
Gigantic Holes in the Narrative
If Mr. Prakash’s goal was to show how easily false data can penetrate the media, why don’t we know who at California Post was penetrated? The California Post’s by-line is “Justin Choi,” but who authorized the story for publication? No major story appears without explicit approval from the higher echelon. Mr. Choi seems to be a 2026 graduate from UCLA with a degree in economics. He was associated with Fox News Media’s ”America’s Newsroom;” KTLA/Fox 11 and California Post are the two LA media that broke the story. A newly minted economics graduate, such as Mr. Choi, breaking such a consequential political story, raises eyebrows. After all, Josh Koehn is the Post’s senior political reporter. Thus, it seems unusual that Choi got to break the story unless he brought it to the California Post.
Look at the breakneck speed of Median Strategies and the California Post.
Prakash’s Median Strategies published its poll on August 13, but the exact time has yet to be established. California Post released its story at August 13, 2026 — 7:53 p.m. PDT (LA Time) Prakash said he designed the story to show how fast the media would gobble up false data; yet only California Post and Fox News jumped on the new poll. As she said in Alice in Wonderland, things become “curiouser and curiouser!"
Was Rahil Prakash’s Hypothesis Proved
Let’s not jump to conclusions. One certainty is that a lot of facts are still unknown. Who brought the story to the California Post? Some would opine that the Post’s editors would not pass over its own political editor and give such a story to a cub reporter, unless the newbie had brought the story to the Post. This speculation could lead one to surmise without evidence that two recent UC grads who may never had met, conspired to have the false data reported in two LA publications where Choi had contacts, i.e., California Post and FOX.
Did Rahil Prakash Prime the Pump?
What if no media picked up Median Strategies August 13th release and everyone ignored it? What would Prakash have to report? “I hypothesized that faked poll number would rapidly spread through the media, but everyone ignored my story.” Maybe Prakash thought the media well needed priming by making certain the clearly faked poll actually broke in Los Angeles. Who knows? I certainly don’t know.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former Los Angeles-based attorney, an author, and political commentator. A long-time contributor to CityWatchLA, he is known for his incisive critiques of City Hall and judicial corruption, as well as his analysis of political and constitutional issues. Abrams blends legal insight with historical and philosophical depth to challenge conventional narratives. A passionate defender of civic integrity and transparency, he aims to expose misuse of power and advocate for systemic reform in local government. You may email him at [email protected])
