There’s “being wrong,” and then there’s “being so wrong that Twitter publishes a dedicated fact-check in your honor.”
MSNBC’s Joy Reid is no stranger to the former. On Tuesday, she became a veteran of the latter.
“Here’s the thing,” the cable news host said late Monday evening, “the reason there’s a thing called [FiveThirtyEight] is because 538 was the margin in FL when the Republican SCOTUS reversed the 2000 election during a recount, making Dubya the president.”
Here’s the thing: the reason there’s a thing called @FiveThirtyEight is because 538 was the margin in FL when the Republican SCOTUS reversed the 2000 election during a recount, making Dubya the president. That’s the kind of margin where races can flip. That’s not what’s up now.
— Joy WE VOTED!! WEAR A MASK!! Reid ?) (@JoyAnnReid) November 10, 2020
Oh dear.
The website FiveThirtyEight, which specializes in opinion poll analyses, takes its name from the number of electors in the electoral college. The fact that FiveThirtyEight rose to real prominence during the 2008 presidential election should be the giveaway. A political pundit should know this.
Also, the margin in Florida in 2000 was 537, not 538.
“The website FiveThirtyEight is named after the number of electors in the Electoral College, journalists and fact-checkers report,” the social media site declared in a fact-check displayed prominently on its homepage.
It adds, “On Tuesday, CNN’s Jake Tapper and other fact-checkers noted that the name of the website FiveThirtyEight originates from the total number of Electoral College votes that determine the US presidency, correcting an inaccurate claim made by MSNBC’s Joy Reid.”
Reid cut her teeth in political commentary during the 2000 presidential election blogging on her now-defunct Reid Report. Her entire career in punditry has been about understanding and (supposedly) explaining American politics. So…that’s a bit awkward.
