Chris Stirewalt: I Was Right to Call Razor-Thin-Margin Arizona Nine Days Before Everyone Else Did, The News Panders Too Much to Nasty Partisans Such as People Who Don't Think I'm a Cute and Snarky Slice of Awesome-Pie

I guess he remains, as he said on election night, "serene and pristine" about his erroneous call.

And it was erroneous. He says he's right, but only because a coin flip came up his way. If a state with millions and millions of votes has only an 11,000 vote separation between candidates, you don't call it. That is statistically TIED, and "sampling" and guesstimating will not avail you. You have to wait until votes are actually COUNTED -- something all the leftwing networks did, except for Fox.

Were you also right that Democrats would pick up between 10 and 15 House seats, asshole?

It's good to see this liberal asshole is writing his You-a Culpa in the liberal asshole outlet The Los Angeles Times.

In my career as a political analyst and, until my firing last week, an election forecaster on the decision desk at Fox News, I have always been with [those in the media emphasizing speed over accuracy]. I wanted to steam downriver as fast as I could to be first with the news to beat the competition and serve my audience.

That's why I was proud of our being first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona, and very happy to defend that call in the face of a public backlash egged on by former President Trump. Being right and beating the competition is no act of heroism; it's just meeting the job description of the work I love. But what happens now that there are almost no physical limits on the getting and giving of the news?

You weren't right, Fattie McGoo.

Being first with the account or images of major events is a thing of scant value now. What one outlet has, every outlet will have, usually within seconds. Indeed, being first can prove to be a commercial disadvantage.

Having worked in cable news for more than a decade after a wonderfully misspent youth in newspapers, I can tell you the result: a nation of news consumers both overfed and malnourished. Americans gorge themselves daily on empty informational calories, indulging their sugar fixes of self-affirming half-truths and even outright lies.

Can anyone really be surprised that the problem has gotten worse in the last few years?

...

The rebellion on the populist right against the results of the 2020 election was partly a cynical, knowing effort by political operators and their hype men in the media to steal an election or at least get rich trying. But it was also the tragic consequence of the informational malnourishment so badly afflicting the nation.

When I defended the call for Biden in the Arizona election, I became a target of murderous rage from consumers who were furious at not having their views confirmed.

You got heat from people who saw you call Arizona far too early, while taking hours and hours to call the blow-outs in Ohio and Florida.

But you were "serene and pristine" in your call, huh, Fattykins?

Just like you were "just that damn good" when you called the House race while the entire West was still voting in 2018.

Having been cosseted by self-validating coverage for so long, many Americans now consider any news that might suggest that they are in error or that their side has been defeated as an attack on them personally. The lie that Trump won the 2020 election wasn’t nearly as much aimed at the opposing party as it was at the news outlets that stated the obvious, incontrovertible fact.

While there is still a lucrative market for a balanced offering of news and opinion at high-end outlets, much of the mainstream is increasingly bent toward flattery and fluff.

This is standard Leftwing Media Cant that the liberal view is the "fact" and conservatives just can't handle the "facts" endlessly repeated by the leftwing press.

Of which the Fox News "news" division is definitely a part.

posted by Ace at 05:06 PM

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