Anecdotes — news evidence log

Human-curated complement to references/news/search_log.md (machine audit trail) and references/news/stories.csv (article index). One session per heading; list queries run and a sentence on what the haul looks like. Don't duplicate article lists — those are in stories.csv.

2026-06-02 — initial /anecdotes pass

7 queries via newsbr against migalhas,folha,jota (Brazil legal + mainstream political). Migalhas returned 0 across all queries despite strong topical fit — worth checking whether the native search needs broader terms. JOTA contributed 2 (sitemap scan, expected). Folha provided the bulk (138/139 articles).

Queries run:

1. pesquisa eleitoral encomendada 2024 — 22 added (cultural-term coverage; lots of São Paulo race horserace polls)
2. fraude pesquisa eleitoral TSE — 25 added (Channel B angle; some bleed into election-fraud-in-general, not poll-fraud-specifically)
3. pesquisa eleitoral errou eleição 2024 prefeito — 1 added (postmortem coverage thin; reformulate next pass)
4. representação pesquisa eleitoral 2024 — 22 added (TSE lawsuit coverage; complements EJ injunction layer)
5. contratante pesquisa eleitoral candidato — 22 added (sponsor-disclosure stories, including the headline Paraná Pesquisas / PL article)
6. Paraná Pesquisas Real Time Big Data Quaest 2024 — 0 added (over-specified); reformulated to Paraná Pesquisas viés — 24 added (single-firm scrutiny works)
7. pesquisa eleitoral registro TSE metodologia — 23 added (Channel A methodology-controversies angle; multiple Datafolha-method-contested pieces)

Total: 139 article texts across 7 effective queries, 1 reformulation.

High-signal articles for the paper

Surfaced in this pass, worth reading first:

• Paraná Pesquisas recebeu R$ 2,7 milhões de partido de Bolson… (Folha) — direct mainstream coverage of a pollster receiving large transfers from a party; this is the smoking-gun narrative for sponsor bias
• Campanha de Boulos tenta censurar pesquisa do Datafolha em S… — campaign-vs-pollster litigation, lawsuit channel
• Decisão que censurou Datafolha na Bahia a pedido do PT é rev… — same theme, judicial reversal angle
• Chiarelli pede que Justiça apure a realização de pesquisa do… — petition for judicial investigation of a poll
• Painel [Indicado pela Justiça Eleitoral como contratant]… — TSE-named contratante (institutional anomaly)
• Institutos divergem sobre metodologia… — methodology divergence story (Channel A)
• Datafolha explica método contestado por campanha de Russoman… — methodology defense after attack
• Site omite que pesquisa com vantagem para Bolsonaro foi feit… — sponsored-poll provenance / disclosure issue
• Bolsonaristas usam pesquisas contestadas para construir narr… — contested polls weaponized politically
• Instituições financeiras despontam em financiamento de pesqu… — sponsor-mix story (financial institutions financing polls)

Gaps / follow-ups for next pass

• Migalhas zero-hit on every query — try broader terms (pesquisa eleitoral alone, instituto pesquisa) to see if the issue is query specificity or topical coverage.
• Postmortem of 2024 mayoral misses returned almost nothing — try queries naming specific surprise races (Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Salvador) or pesquisa subestimou Marçal / pesquisa errou Nunes.
• Conjur (legal, free, fetch-only) could add depth on the Representações-pesquisa angle — try a curated URL list after a manual google search.
• Theme column in stories.csv is empty — schedule a classification pass once article count stabilizes (split on Channel A / Channel B / lawsuit / sponsor-disclosure / methodology-defense).