Sky in the dark

Anthony Albanese, Sharri Markson and Peter Dutton (Image from MSN)

Sky News host Sharri Markson has claimed that polls favouring a Labor victory in the 2025 Australian federal election are inaccurate, citing “exclusive inside information” to support her assertion. However, the evidence she provides is limited and largely speculative. She suggests that the polls, including those from Newspoll, may be unreliable because the polling company behind Newspoll, Pyxis Polling & Insights, is allegedly being paid by Labor – potentially millions of dollars. This claim implies bias but lacks concrete proof, such as financial records or direct evidence of manipulation. Additionally, posts on X indicate that Markson referenced internal polling from Peter Dutton and David Littleproud, which supposedly shows different results, but she did not present specific figures or data to substantiate this.

On the other hand, recent polling data paints a different picture. A Newspoll from April 20, 2025, reported by The Conversation, showed Labor consolidating its lead ahead of the May 3 election. Another Newspoll on April 21, cited by ABC News, indicated Labor’s advantage, though both leaders’ ratings had fallen. The Guardian’s poll tracker today also suggested Labor was ahead, combining multiple opinion polls for a more robust estimate. Earlier, a YouGov poll from February 14 projected the Coalition might win 73 seats – short of a majority – while Labor was trailing at 66 seats, hinting at a closer race but not aligning with Markson’s claim of Labor’s lead being inaccurate.

Markson’s argument seems to rely more on insinuation than hard evidence. Her suggestion of Labor’s influence over Newspoll is unverified, and her reference to internal polling lacks transparency. Meanwhile, publicly available polls consistently show Labor leading, though the gap varies. It’s worth noting that polls can be wrong, as historical examples such as the 2019 Australian election demonstrate, but Markson’s claims don’t provide a solid basis to dismiss the current data. Her assertions appear more like an attempt to cast doubt on unfavourable results for the Coalition rather than a substantiated critique of polling methodology.

 

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About Roswell 23 Articles
Roswell is American born though he was quite young when his family moved to Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Science and spent most of his working life in Canberra. His interests include anything that has an unsolved mystery about it, politics (Australian and American), science, history, and travelling. Roswell works a lot in Admin at The AIMN.

10 Comments

  1. Ms Markson has all the creditable honesty of her spiv father, Max. They are natural-born grifters.
    Though totally unqualified in the field, she continues to push her book claiming the Chinese invent Covid.
    She only lasted 2 years at Uni, but her whole working life has been in the dregs of the Murdoch sewer.

  2. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
    Seems to be the Markson family motto?

  3. It used to be a thing that if you were going to tell a porkie, you’d have one hand behind your back with the second & third fingers crossed. I suppose it was meant to lessen the extent of the wrong being committed. Time perhaps to pay closer attention to that considerable cohort of journalists for whom lying is stock-in-trade… what are their fingers up to?

  4. Fox, Pox, News, Spews, Lies, Ignorance, Propaganda, Mucking Furdoch, Uncivilised Ignorance, Pontifical Poop, Endless Fixated Stupidities, Stupid Staff, Our Media POX. And yet, the Daily Bellycrap is even worse…lower than a grub’s groin.

  5. Sharri Markson- in the words of a tennis player Mc Enroe: “You can’t
    be serious!”
    A loathsome scribe from the Murdoch stable. I would not even credit her and any of her associates as journalists.

  6. Cangaru sky people are fixed by rupe into sheep-like responses and their fingers are picking the dags out of their arses. Their keyboards are covered in poop.
    Right now they are so desperate for dutton to win that no truth is safe and no lie beyond telling. Fortunately he is too brittle to succeed but lnp preferences are crucial. So, the real danger is the bandit and his loonies, who can blatantly lie whilst telling the truth. If enough silly labor believe the loonie lies they could lose labor 8/9 seats

  7. There is a certain time of the day when SKY escort off the premises real journalists and usher in the night-shift, a grab bag of failed reporters and faux influencers and people with no other evident skill beyond having a loud voice and seamless Murdochian ideology and opinions.
    This seems to take place around dusk and hence the metamorphosis has become known as Sky after Dark or SaD. Odd people like Markson. Bolt, Murray, Rowan Dean, Chris Kenny, Rita Panahi, Peta Credlin and others take over – Piers Morgan after a big fanfare and even bigger salary was canned after a few months, as being boring. What these luminaries have in common is that they have abandoned all pretence at real journalism, objectivity or balance and they have evidently been told that during their brief tenure at SKY they will adhere strictly to the Murdoch view of the world and, as with Markson, permeate their offerings with fantasy and extreme bias.

    Sky after Dark has as much credibility as Married at First Sight (MAFS if you are an aficionado) although the latter does from time to time acknowledge that it is sham television and most participants end up in court or rehab which may be where Piers Morgan is to this day.

  8. My good mate Blind Freddie says that Sharri Markson is upset because some fool changed the public poll sample from ”only rusted on LIARBRAL$” to ”street corner respondents”.

    Expect the usual Boofhead policy flip-flops as he flounders, Howard 2007-like, in their cess-pit of self-serving policies for their ”political donors” the billionaires club.

    A million plus Australians have already voted. How much will the billionaires spend to rescue this campaign, now that Turdball’s about $1.7 MILLION personal ”political” donation is persona non gratia??

  9. More Fark News. If I were a religious person I would say its enough to make a saint cry.

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