A tweet that claimed Mike Bloomberg could give every American $1 million from the amount of money he spent on his failed campaign was repeated by MSNBC’s Brian Williams.
“It’s True, It’s Disturbing!”
Speaking to MSNBC’s Brian Williams about Bloomberg’s recent withdrawal from the presidential campaign after Super Tuesday, the New York Times’s Mara Gay brought up a tweet she had seen online.
“Somebody tweeted recently that with the money he spent he could’ve given every American $1 million,” Gay said. Williams proceeded to put the tweet up on the screen, saying that when he “read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became clear.”
“Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads,” the tweet from Mekita Rivas, a writer with bylines in the Washington Post and Refinery to name others, read. “The U.S. population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
“It’s an incredible way of putting it, it’s true, it’s disturbing, it does suggest what we’re talking about here that there’s too much money in politics,” Gay reacted.
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1235808311834021888
Yet, of course, this calculation about Bloomberg’s campaign couldn’t be further from the truth. If you split his $500 million campaign spend equally amongst all 327 million American citizens, everyone would get $1.53, which is surprisingly rather far away from $1 million.
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MSNBC Need to Go Back to School!
MSNBC was roundly mocked for not having anyone on their team realize the obvious mathematical error.
This wasn’t some off-the-cuff live-TV moment. It was a planned graphic.
Imagine how many people’s hands, and brains, this had to pass through in order for it to make onto the air and then receive the endorsement of the two people on air.
MSNBC is such a shitshow: https://t.co/DIMlyQjGMo
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 6, 2020
MSNBC's Brian Williams and NYTs editorial board member Mara Gay think $500 million dollars divided by 300 million Americans equals $1 million for every American. Our media is populated with fucking morons. https://t.co/pP2amtzcaL
— Mike LaChance (@MikeLaChance33) March 6, 2020
Rivas even went on to double down on her error after it had been pointed out to her.
“Blah blah math blah blah people are telling me my numbers are wrong but the point still stands: he could easily afford to give everyone $1 million and literally never notice,” Rivas claimed. Her point, of course, does not still stand – despite being a multi-billionaire, even Bloomberg doesn’t have a spare $327 TRILLION to throw about.
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The media class in this country need to go back to school and learn some basic maths – this is elementary stuff here folks, and yet they still got it wrong!