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# It’s Not That Journalists Are Stupid – Maths Is Racist
- URL: https://goodoil.news/its-not-that-journalists-are-stupid-maths-is-racist/
- Published: 2020-03-14T01:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2020-03-14T00:25:24.000Z
- Author: Cam Slater
- Tags: Media, USA Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 03:24

It’s no secret that the legacy media are one of the most ridiculously egotistical professional groups on the face of the planet. Mainstream journalists tend to have grossly inflated self-regard – and a complete lack of any ability to self-reflect.

Mainstream journalists are, in my experience, almost completely clueless about basic science and particularly inept at basic maths. **Statistics is an especially black art for these egomaniacal scribblers.**

> Following a Thursday night appearance on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour With **Brian Williams**,” **\[Mara\] Gay** became a viral sensation — for all the wrong reasons.  
>  
> Gay and host Brian Williams discussed a since-deleted tweet which said billionaire former mayor **Michael Bloomberg** should have taken the $500 million he spent on his failed presidential bid and given $1 million to every American instead\[…\]  
>  
> Williams and Gay endorsed the idea\[…\]“It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true,” Gay agreed.

**Bloomberg spent $500 million. The population of America is 330 million.** I’m pretty sure *BFD* readers can do a quick mental calculation without even taking their shoes off – unlike these very senior and highly-paid journalists. Williams is MSNBC’s anchor and Gay is on the New York Times editorial board.

> Neither of the pundits caught the basic math error the original Twitter user had made— disbursing the half a billion dollars spent by Bloomberg would have resulted in each American getting about $1.50.

This isn’t an isolated case. During a recent Australian election, a Labor politician spruiking the NBN boasted that it would deliver internet speeds **“40 percent faster – that’s 400 times faster!”** The interviewer never noticed the glaring mathematical error.

When you’re caught out flunking a 3rd-grade maths problem, what should you do? Admit your mistake and maybe have a laugh at yourself?

**Or scream “racism”?**

> A New York Times editorial board member, who was widely mocked for making a glaring math error while appearing on MSNBC last week, says the backlash was rooted in racism.  
>  
> “A racist Twitter mob came for me over a trivial math mistake. I’m not going anywhere,” Mara Gay tweeted on Wednesday, the same day The Times published her op-ed responding to the controversy\[…\]  
>  
> Gay’s response did little to defuse the criticism being lobbed against her, and arguably made it worse.  
>  
> The tweet she posted linking to her Times op-ed received a hefty “ratio,” and numerous commenters accused her of “playing the victim.”  
>  
> Other pointed out that Williams, an influential white man, had also been “widely ridiculed.”  
>  
> [pluralist.com/mara-gay-math-error-racist](https://pluralist.com/mara-gay-math-error-racist/49999/?ref=goodoil.news)

Nope, it’s the maths. Maths is racist.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/the_bfd_racistcalculator.jpg)

The BFD.

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