A polling firm fabricated entire surveys...and nobody in the media caught it. But the real scandal isn't the fraud. It's that the fraud worked so easily. Most journalists covering polls either don't know how to vet polls or choose not to. Either way, the public gets frustrated and the polling industry gets the shaft. I put together a six-question checklist that any reporter, campaign manager, or public affairs team can use before trusting a single number. None of the questions require a statistics degree (thank goodness, cause I don't have one). They require about five minutes and a willingness to ask. The media's polling literacy problem isn't going away on its own. But it could get better fast if newsrooms started asking even half the right questions.

A hall of fame class of journalists is leaving @AP today — 40 reporters and photo/videographers who've taken buyouts as our US news operation shrinks. They've broken untold stories, captured searing images, held power to account and made us all smarter. We'll miss them dearly.