The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Chris, We Haven’t Called Texas Yet’

Posted on | November 10, 2020 | 3 Comments

Millions of Republicans have stopped watching Fox News after the Election Night debacle in which the network’s “Decision Desk” (i.e., a Democrat named Aaron Mishkin) called Arizona for Joe Biden at a time when they were still claiming that Ohio and Texas were “too close to call.”

When the “Decision Desk” called Arizona for Biden, it shocked Bill Hemmer and Brett Baier. The results at the time showed Biden with about a 200,000-vote lead in Arizona, but as Baier said in an on-air discussion with Chris Stirewalt, it was known that the counties had begun by reporting their early-vote totals (which favored Democrats) and that the Election Day voting (which favored Republicans) had just begun to be reported. Furthermore, at the time, Fox still hadn’t called Ohio for Trump. He won the state by an eight-point margin (more than 450,000 votes) and 94% of the results had already been reported in Ohio, yet it was “too close to call” at the time Fox called Arizona for Biden. And, exactly as Baier pointed out to Stirewalt, the Trump vote in Arizona continued increasing, so that the numbers this morning have Biden with only a 15,000-vote margin, about 4/10ths of a percentage point, with many challenges left to resolve. Despite this, Stirewalt stared dumbly into the camera and defended the “Decision Desk”:

“Ohio is close. Obviously we see the president has
an advantage and he’s had an advantage in polling
in Ohio, in the same way he has in Iowa
for the closing stretch of the election.
I would point out, pre-election polls in this cycle
have so far turned out to be really, really good.”

No, sir, that was false.

Polling errors were catastrophic in size, so enormous as to discredit public opinion polling quite generally. The Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls was 7 points off; Quinnipiac’s final Ohio poll had Biden +4 — a 12-point error. Similarly, the RCP average of Texas polls was nearly 5 points off; the Dallas Morning News poll had Biden leading by 3 points; he lost by 5.8, with Trump winning by nearly 650,000 votes.

These errors were so large that they could not be explained as mere incompetence; they were part of a political psyops campaign. And, we must now admit, Fox News was part of the same campaign.

Brett Baier: “But Chris, we haven’t called Texas yet. Why haven’t we called Texas?”
Chris Stirewalt: “Because it’s too close to call.”

No honest person could say that. Chris Stirewalt is not an honest person. The margin in Arizona is barely 15,000 votes, but the Fox News “Decision Desk” could call that a win for Biden, whereas Texas — where the margin was more than 40 times larger — was “too close to call.”

Chris Stirewalt stacked his credibility into a large pile on Election Night, doused it in gasoline, and tossed a match at it. Any news organization that would employ Chris Stirewalt is not trustworthy. Ace of Spades has some further thoughts on why Fox News committed suicide.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!




 

 

Category: Election, Fox News, Media Bias

Comments

3 Responses to “‘Chris, We Haven’t Called Texas Yet’”

  1. Fox News Still Will Not Admit Bungling Election Night Call on House Races : The Other McCain
    November 11th, 2020 @ 10:57 pm

    […] addition to botching the presidential call in Arizona, Fox News was even more disastrously wrong in their congressional projections on Election Night, […]

  2. Tucker Carlson’s Tightrope Walk : The Other McCain
    November 12th, 2020 @ 3:54 pm

    […] and the network’s management. While I’m basically done with Fox News — any network that employs Chris Stirewalt is not to be trusted — I still try to catch Carlson’s opening monologue, which remains […]

  3. The digital crisis blog management plan. – Dark Brightness
    November 12th, 2020 @ 6:41 pm

    […] Polling errors were catastrophic in size, so enormous as to discredit public opinion polling quite generally. The Real Clear Politics average of Ohio polls was 7 points off; Quinnipiac’s final Ohio poll had Biden +4 — a 12-point error. Similarly, the RCP average of Texas polls was nearly 5 points off; the Dallas Morning News poll had Biden leading by 3 points; he lost by 5.8, with Trump winning by nearly 650,000 votes. […]