On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 12:08 PM, Dave Sikula <[email protected]> wrote:
> For me, the point isn't whether Silver was right or not (which he was, in > spades), but how much (and well) the right has worked the refs so that the > traditional media have been utterly cowed into not covering any story in > such a way that they can be called for "liberal bias." > > I think most reporters and journalists are "leftist" by nature (at its > best, journalism should question the status quo, imo), but years of > pressure have led us to "one side says this/the other side says that" > reporting, so I don't expect "the media" to apologize or contextualize > Silver's predictions any more than I expect them to anathematize Dick > Morris for his own ludicrous predictions, the Sunday yack shows to stop > booking McCain, or Beltway pundits to stop emitting risible gas. I think you are right that TV news has been effectively castrated by the pressure groups, but I found it even more disturbing that they distorted or ignored polling data for their own direct self-interest as well. I actually would have been happier if they had said something like: "Nate Silver from 538 predicts a pretty clear Obama win, while the Gallup Poll predicts a narrow win by Romney - watch us Tuesday night and find out which is right". That would have been a major distortion too of course, since one is an aggregator of many polls, and the other is a single poll, but at least it would begin to give viewers some tools for thinking about the night. They could have referred to RCP, a Republican aggregator, but then they would have had to say: Silver predicts a 2.5 point Obama win, RCP predicts a .7 point Obama win - watch us and find out which is right". Instead, they repeatedly endlessly: "The race is so close not even God can tell who is likely to win - the only way you can have any idea is to watch us tonight". -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
