More Logical Fallacy from a TSU Prof

In this morning's Tennessean:

TSU geology professor David Padgett is conducting the research and coordinating the May Town Scholars. He's the one who drew up the contract with the developers, and he bristles at the suggestion that his students are doing something unseemly.

"It would go against everything I stand for, everything any researcher would do," to manipulate his research with a push poll, he said. "Absolutely not, I can't fix the numbers, and I have not been asked to."

Dr. Padgett continues to evade by defending his reputation rather responding straightforwardly to the question of whether using words like "exciting" and "opportunity" in reference to May Town Center--as well as providing a link to the developers' website--predisposes the research subjects to support the development. While I'm not exactly sure what he means by "fix the numbers" (which may be a red herring), I can say that it is misleading to argue that numbers can't be fixed. Any numbers can be fixed.