Mara gay math
New York Times' Mara Gay mocked for attacking 'racist Twitter mob' following MSNBC math fiasco
New York Times editorial board member Mara Homosexual had some selection words for the "racist Twitter mob" who went after her after she and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams were mocked for sharing a botched math problem.
Last week, Same-sex attracted and Williams marveled at a Twitter user's observation over presidential primary dropout Michael Bloomberg's campaign spending.
The Super Tuesday post, now deleted, claimed that the former New York City mayor “spent $500 million on ads. The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still possess money left over, I feel enjoy a $1 million check would be life-changing for people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
“It’s an unreal way of putting it,” Williams gushed.
“It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true,” Queer agreed.
CNN'S BRIAN STELTER SKIPS MSNBC'S MATH FIASCO WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS ON HIS MEDIA SHOW
In reality, however, had Bloomberg divvied his advertising dollars among all Americans, the per-capita cash-out would have been more like $1.53 per person – not even enough to take a ride on Unused York Ci
Epic math gaffe by Brian Williams & Mara Gay highlights fantastic need for improved numeracy
When it comes to mindless journalistic blunders, there are brain cramps and then there are lobotomies.
Example of a brain cramp: the hour in the late-1990s when, as a newspaper reporter, I referred to a high school learner as “Dustin Hoffman.” He distributed a first name with the famous actor, but not the last name, and my thought drifted into auto-celebrity actor mode as I tapped out my story.
The teen’s last name? I don’t remember, but I do recall his parents creature peeved that I had interviewed the 17-year-old without their permission. (The story was about a teacher who had been accused of sexually assaulting another learner during an overseas trip.)
To make my mistaken-attribution saga even stranger, those same parents’ upset was assuaged by what they saw as my intentional verdict to shield his identity by concocting a false (and famous) last name. Apparently, they reflection I was exercising some journalistic ethic in doing so. Nope, it was just a mindless blunder, of the brain-cramp variety.
Which brings me to that other type of journalistic blunder: the lobotomy.
A literal lobotomy, fo
A segment about the 2020 presidential election primaries on MSNBC News on March 5 caused a flood of comments on Twitter. Here is the tweet that brought the segment into the Twittersphere and started all the ruckus:
Both the guest, a member of the New York Times Editorial Board, and host Brian Williams failed to perceive how absurd was the arithmetical claim being made.
If this is the first time you have seen this segment, it likely flew by too posthaste to register. Here (right) is the original tweet that started it all.
Curious as to who set out the tweet, I checked her profile. (See below.) [Normally I anonymize tweets, even though they are public, but on this case the tweet was shown on exist national television.] She starts out with the claim that she is terrible at math. I contain no idea whether she is or she isn’t. But that tweet does not show she is. It actually suggests she may be a excel mathematical thinker than many – read on.
Many of the comments on Twitter lamented the underprivileged arithmetical skills of the tweeter and the two media figures on the show. In fact, the story went well beyond Twitter. The next afternoon, the Washington Post, no le
A factually incorrect tweet from journalist Mekita Rivas got more credit than it deserved on Thursday, when it was read on the air by MSNBC's Brian Williams.
The tweet criticized Michael Bloomberg's spending on his now-suspended presidential campaign, saying that the $500 million in campaign-ad spending could've instead been given to the 327 million people living in the Merged States, guaranteeing each person $1 million. Williams featured the tweet on his show, The 11th Hour, and he and his guest, New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay, took it at deal with value.
Of course, the math in Rivas' tweet makes no sense. Bloomberg's campaign would've only been able to offer each American about $1.50, not $1 million.
"When I peruse it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear," Williams said during Thursday's segment. "It's an incredible way of putting it."
Gay agreed with Williams. "It's an incredible way of putting it," she said. "It's true."
Later in the broadcast, during another segment, Williams apologized for the error. "While I contain you both and our audience paying attention, turns out Mara and I got the matching grades at math. I'm speaking of the tweet we both