Media bias occurs not mostly through slanted presentation of facts, but through the questions the journalists ask. That sort of bias is on display tonight at the New York Times election results page.
Counting the popular vote across multiple Senate races is a meaningless enterprise. Senate races are determined by discrete states, not by any national aggregate. Two-thirds of all senators are not up for re-election. Two states have special elections, and so they have TWO Senate races. California has a primary system that has resulted in two Democrats on the ballot and no Republicans, meaning Republicans can’t get any Senate votes from the most populous state in the country.
Recommended Stories
For two years, liberal commentators have been talking about this meaningless number as part of their argument that the GOP control of government is illegitimate. No other new sources are counting this number of aggregate national votes for U.S. Senate, because it doesn’t tell you anything.
So why is the Times putting that as one of its headline numbers?
