Posted on 03/06/2020 8:03:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay joined MSNBC’s Brian Williams Thursday night to talk about Michael Bloomberg’s campaign spending, affirming a wildly inaccurate social media claim that Bloomberg could have instead given every American $1 million and had money leftover.
Gay and Williams referenced a March 3 Tweet from journalist Mekita Rivas, which said, “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear,” said Williams. “It’s an incredible way of putting it.”
“It’s an incredible way of putting it,” Gay agreed. “It’s true. It’s disturbing. It does suggest what we’re talking about here, which is there’s too much money in politics.”
Of course, if Williams or Gay or an MSNBC producer had paused to grab a calculator or think, they would have realized Bloomberg’s half-billion-dollar ad spree would be enough to give every American only about $1.50. Where’s Andrew Yang when you need him?
MSNBC’s math flub, while embarrassing, is the least of the mainstream media’s ineptitude. These are the same people that pushed Russiagate, botched impeachment, slandered Covington Catholic high school students, bought into the Jussie Smollett hoax, and most recently lied about President Donald Trump’s remarks concerning Democrats’ handling of coronavirus — all the while mocking conservatives, Middle America, and Trump voters for supposed ignorance.
A January CNN panel explicitly mocked Trump voters for their support for the president and criticism of the mainstream media, even mentioning the media’s math.
“Trump couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if you had the letter ‘U’ and a picture of an actual physical crane next to it,” said ex-GOP strategist and Never Trumper Rick Wilson. “He knows that this is an administration defined by ignorance of the world, and so that’s partly him playing to their base and playing to their audience — the credulous boomer rube demo that backs Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump’s the smart one, and y’all — y’all elitists are dumb,” Wilson continued, imitating conservatives with a redneck accent.
“You elitists with your geography and your maps and your spelling!” CNN contributor Wajahat Ali added.
“Your math and your readin’!” Wilson scoffed as he, Ali, and Don Lemon laughed hysterically.
Correct math and readin’ could have spared the mainstream media some on-air humiliation in this case. As for journalist Rivas, she made her Twitter account private after the MSNBC math error began trending on social media, adding to her Twitter bio, “I know I’m bad at math.”
If he will give me a million, I will vote for him but that is the only way.
$500 million, roughly $1.63 per citizen...
"Woo hoo! We had 2 million viewers last month!"
Do we tell them?
As stated well on another post, this grasp of math might explain why democrats are so ready to believe Bernie when he says he can tax a few rich people and completely fund all his spending fantasies.
And of the $1.50 I would have received, the IRS would have taken half.
My vote isn’t for sale, but since he’s throwing money away on the DNC...send me a mil, I’ll donate half to helping the homeless. But then again, I know many people who have done more (with far less) than his elitist ass has ever done or ever will do.
National Review editor Charles C. W. Cooke wrote that the math is obviously “spectacularly off” but it’s also very telling.
"Why did Mara Gay agree with Mekita Rivas? Why didn’t Brian Williams notice?"
"Because these people actually think it's true. This is how they see the world.”
“This is why so many left-leaning Americans think that ‘the billionaires’ can pay for everything. “
"It’s why Democrats promise not to raise ‘middle class taxes’ while spouting programs requiring upping middle class taxes."
These glittering jewels of mathematic ignorance must have gone to the same school as Joe Biden, who told us that 150,000,000 Americans have died in shootings since 2007.
LOL!! Left wing stupid F%@Ks!!!
RE: $500 million, roughly $1.63 per citizen...
What about those here illegally?
The quickest way to get rich is to repeatedly ask Brian Williams to exchange two $10s for a $5.
The real story is some guy made 40 million dollars with those ad buys. I’d like to shake that guy’s hand and buy him a beer.
Excuse me, make that 27 cents per citizen...
He could give me $1 Million and I still wouldn’t vote for him. I would say “Thank you”, though.
150 million, yet we still got a population of 330 million. Illegals must be swarming into the country more than we thought.
What's missing from this brilliant analysis is that if he was that reckless with hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money, imagine how he'd treat trillions of dollars of other people's money.
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