SAN ANTONIO – KSAT has partnered with two local nonprofits to tap into public opinion surrounding issues that are most important to the people who call Bexar County and San Antonio home.
Through quarterly nonpartisan polling, the Bexar Facts-KSAT-Rivard Report Poll will get a deeper understanding of issues that drive our community, enabling us to foster a more engaging conversation across the greater San Antonio area.
KSAT, the Rivard Report and Bexar Blueprint are building a first-of-its-kind collaborative in San Antonio that will release polling results in tandem through 2020 and initiate community discussions based on the trends gleaned from those results.
The polling will include questions about local issues — ranging from water and transportation to affordable housing and education — as well as voter confidence in local officials, from San Antonio and Bexar County.
The first results will be released on KSAT.com, the Rivard Report’s site and Bexar Facts on Feb. 11. The questions are in the field as of today.
“The way we see it, the staffs at KSAT and Rivard Report bring an array of expertise to the community,” said Bernice Kearney, news director at KSAT. “Each serves its own diverse audience. But together, working in concert through a multi-platform approach, both organizations can leverage their individual strengths to build a stronger information ecosystem.”
Through this collaboration, the group will create a mechanism of shared information that will build healthy discussions that inform and enhance policy decisions on the local level.
“San Antonio needs a reliable, nonpartisan polling enterprise like Bexar Facts with its finger on the pulse of voters, asking the right questions, and providing elected leaders and citizens with timely, interesting, and credible data and information,” said Robert Rivard, publisher and editor of the Rivard Report. “We are proud to be partnering with our colleagues at KSAT to serve as a publishing platform for the Bexar Facts poll results, and to have our respective journalists help people understand what the survey results might mean for public policymakers going forward. This important election year is an ideal time to launch.”
KSAT12 VP/GM Phil Lane said, “We at KSAT12 pride ourselves on being here exclusively for our local viewers and this is just one more way we’ll work to bring them more local coverage of the issues that affect them and the officials they vote into office. When we say you can ‘Expect More from KSAT12,’ this collaboration is another example of how we’re living up to that promise.”
The shared goal is to inform our community, engage them in robust, meaningful conversations around the issues, trends and social findings that emerge from the polling conducted by FM3 Research.
“No agenda, no slant, no tipping the scales, just the facts... the Bexar Facts,” said KSAT anchor Steve Spriester, who will be involved in coverage of the polls.
Christian Archer, a longtime local political consultant who is the founder of Bexar Blueprint, said the entire project will be transparent.
“While we are not taking positions on certain policies, we’re able to provide the policymakers with the opinions of the public on a science-based, fact-based data gathering effort,” Archer said.
Others involved include Demonte Alexander, a policy and political operative who has previously worked at San Antonio City Council, and Liza Barratachea, the former president and CEO of the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association and a former budget and policy analyst during Gov. Rick Perry’s tenure.
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