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NRaleighLiberal

(60,018 posts)
Wed Nov 7, 2012, 11:31 AM Nov 2012

worth reading - "Why the Conservative Media Got It So Wrong"

written by John Ziegler, conservative commentator - it's really all about Paradigms and the refusal for them to believe what was right in front of them...because they didn't want to!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ziegler/romney-loss-conservative-media_b_2084911.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

"There is no doubt that going into the final days of this presidential election there was a greater disparity in the perceptions of what the outcome would be among the media elites of each political side than any other time in the era of modern technology. Liberals were completely convinced that President Obama would be reelected, while conservatives tended to not just believe Mitt Romney would beat him, but that he would do so in a landslide.

So why did the conservative media get it so wrong? Because I am a conservative who was confident that Obama would win a tight race, I think that I may be in unique position to explain why this happened.

First, while you would think that the advent of modern technology and the explosion of polling data which now exists (it is truly staggering how much more information there is today than there was, say, in 1980) would help in making political predictions, it actually does the opposite. This is because having access to so many numbers allows political partisans to cherry-pick which data points they like in order to fit their agenda and preferred outcome.

As Mark Twain is alleged to have said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics."

snip -much more to read. Good to know how some of the less crazy on the other side thinks!

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worth reading - "Why the Conservative Media Got It So Wrong" (Original Post) NRaleighLiberal Nov 2012 OP
This is why republicans make bad scientists exboyfil Nov 2012 #1
But the GOP lies very well it added to the problem socialindependocrat Nov 2012 #2
The conservative media's purpose is to push propaganda, not facts. tanyev Nov 2012 #3

exboyfil

(17,865 posts)
1. This is why republicans make bad scientists
Wed Nov 7, 2012, 11:49 AM
Nov 2012

Not all republicans but the coo-coo base for sure. When I was looking at the projections I was looking at all the angles including prior performance of pollsters etc. While we hate Morning Joe on this board (he is not much smarter than Hannity) at least he serves as a touchstone to question groupthink. Alan Combes was an imperfect tool, but he served a similar function for Fox. Now all they have is Geraldo (an even more imperfect tool).

I have been tempted to ask the Fox Mafia around here how listening only to them worked out for them. In general the line up from MSNBC must be at least 50 IQ points smarter than their Fox equivalents (most of the weight being carried by Maddow).

socialindependocrat

(1,372 posts)
2. But the GOP lies very well it added to the problem
Wed Nov 7, 2012, 11:50 AM
Nov 2012

I noticed last night - near the end of the election - that the conservative networks were showing a lot of stale data. They were showing Romney ahead and Townhall was showing Obama 63 college votes against Romney's 68. So I switch over to MSNBC and see that Obama has already won.

There was such a stark difference in information that I thought I may be seeing something from 2008

Then, other stations would say things were even when MSNBC showed that Obama was ahead.

It's one thing to generalize to maintain support for your candidate but to intensionally misreport the available data shows a lack of character.

I saw Romney's concession speech this morning and thought that for a deacon in his church he sure had a lot of lies in his campaign. I have absolutely no respect and no desire to communicate with any Repukes in the future. They are a sad, disillusioned, bunch of people who are in deep denial.

Now, look at the Donald! He needs to be locked up before he hurts himself!

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