What’s going on with you? You sound insane.
The old Eric Andre adage rings true amidst the wild and wacky week the mainstream media created for themselves.
In addition to the inexplicable firing of Tucker Carlson, and even Don Lemmon’s sudden demise, another major termination has been made. It’s less high profile than the big two, but Nate Silver has been an institution in the media and polling world.
ABC News bought out FiveThirtyEight from ESPN, and before them the NY Times, a wise choice as the website attracted millions of viewers each day. Nate Silver, a data guy, became the go-to pollster for the media.
They’re usually quite accurate, and since they just aggregate polls, they give a percentage a candidate has on winning. They guessed a Hillary victory in 2016, but were one of the few polling sources to give her the lowest percentage chance of victory.
Long story short, FiveThirtyEight was a respected and well-read site.
But Nate Silver, essentially the creator and main guy of the site, got canned amidst mass Disney layoffs (they own ABC) in an effort to penny pinch. Officially, they didn’t extend his contract, but he was expecting an automatic and seamless extension.
And in typical liberal corporate genius, they’re announced they’re revamping the entire site. Trying to fix something that ain’t broke. “ABC News remains dedicated to data journalism with a core focus on politics, the economy and enterprise reporting — this streamlined structure will allow us to be more closely aligned with our priorities for the 2024 election and beyond.”
Altogether, 7000 jobs are expected to be cut, so Silver can’t take it too personally. Still, dumb to do when the website was generating money and Silver was a known commodity that drew eyeballs and credibility.
Call this the start of the official death of mainstream media. It’s been going on for a while, but now layoffs of key mainstream media stars are happening to save money. Then of course, with the talent gone, things will go from bad to worse. Don’t be shocked if major companies like Disney and CNN look at bankruptcy before decade’s end.
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