Before Getting Annoyed with the Media, Remember This
I read a lot of threads on there about the latest ridiculous assessment of the race by the likes of David Gregory or Joe Scarborough. I certainly understand the frustration. You have these people going on TV and spouting off complete non-sense. They are either pathological liars trying to drum up ratings so they can buy a new boat after the election or they are completely incompetent and they can't tell their ass from a hole in the ground. It is tough to sit there and listen as Chuck Todd says that Pennsylvania is tied, even though most polls have Obama up by about 7 points or when Joe Scarborough says Romney is going to win because his gut tells him so or when Dick Morris takes a poll of the voices in his head and finds a Romney landslide is imminent. It is frustrating to hear Wolf Blitzer tell us that Romney has "momentum" even when all objective evidence shows him rapidly losing ground. Or just reading headline after headline of the "dead heat" that this election is, despite there being no signs of any such race actually existing.
So instead of screaming into a pillow because CNN is pissing you off because their talking heads are spewing complete horseshit hour and hour or bashing your head against a wall because Chuck Todd says that Romney is ahead in Colorado, despite no polls showing any such numbers, remember this:
In 2011, a study was done which looked at how accurate people like John King, David Gregory, and Chuck Todd were at predicting election outcomes. They looked at some 40 self proclaimed "experts" and found that all but 2 or 3 were correct less often than chance. The predictions of these empty suits on TV were less valuable than you flipping a quarter to determine who is going to win an election. You would literally be better off asking a coin who is going to win the election tomorrow than asking David Gregory. You would be better informed about the election if you stared at a dime for an hour than if you watched Morning Joe.
The bottom line is that the "experts" on TV are either among the most incompetent political analysts around or they are pathological liars with absolutely no moral compass; they are people with absolutely no problem manipulating reality and use your hope and your fear, every day, in order to make themselves money.
And this is the reason why we have turned to people like Nate Silver. Nate Silver doesn't get on his blog every night and give us an uninformed, gut feeling about what is happening. He uses objective information through statistics and probability to tell us the state of an election. That is the difference between him and people like Joe Scarborough. Nate Silver is objective, he uses logic and math to get answers. Joe Scarborough is about money and ratings, he will say anything in order to get you to watch his show. His predictions are based on greed or ignorance.
Whichever source you want to go with is fine. Watch Morning Joe everyday if you want and feel however you want about it but keep in mind, if these people are pissing you off, scaring you, affecting how you feel, it is entertainment above information. It is about making money, not about objective analysis. The purpose of these shows is to get you to watch, is to boost their ratings, and is to make you money. Not to give you accurate information.
And always keep in mind, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News are less valuable than a nickle
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/polls/pundit
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