Filber hit back at Channel 12 News: "Did I do it right?"

Pollster Shlomo Filber responded to an attack by Channel 12 News correspondent Ilan Lukatch, after the latter harshly criticized Channel 14 polls over the weekend and even used the results of the Bar Association elections to claim a "history of failures."

In a report published on N12, Lukatch claimed that while polls published in various media outlets present a similar picture, Channel 14 polls present a different picture. "For a very long time, all professional pollsters have been presenting very similar results. On channels 11, 12, 13, in Maariv and Makor Rishon, there are differences of one mandate. And only on the propaganda channel 14, the picture is the opposite," he wrote.

Lukatch added:

"The pollster there, Shlomo Filber, has a history of failures. Just recently, he predicted a victory for Efi Nave in the Bar Association, when in reality Amit Bachar won with four times more votes."

After the publication of the Likud primary results, Filber decided to respond in kind. He shared a screenshot of a poll presented on Channel 12 News' "Ulpan Shishi," in which Tally Gotliv stood in first place among Likud voters, and compared it to the primary results where she reached 12th place.

"In the N12 channel polls, the pollster of Lukatch and Kushmaro predicted that Tally Gotliv would reach first place in the primaries. In the final result, she reached 12th place," wrote Filber, tagging Lukatch and adding sarcastically: "Did I do it right?"

One of the users remarked to Filber that the Channel 12 poll was conducted among Likud voters and not among party members, who were the ones who actually voted in the primaries. In response, Filber explained that this was exactly the point he wanted to make: according to him, Lukatch also took a poll conducted under certain conditions and at a certain time and presented it in retrospect as if it were a direct forecast of the final result.

"Lukatch knew that the poll that appeared on Yinon Magal's show did not predict a victory for Efi Nave, and was conducted 3 weeks before election day, when a week earlier a drama occurred in the Knesset regarding the Knesset representatives in the Judicial Selection Committee, which dramatically affected the Bar Association elections," replied Filber. Filber concluded with a sentence that summarized the message he wanted to convey to Channel 12 News: "When they want to, they can suddenly understand complex situations."