Fox News Faux Pas: Math Is Hard

Fox News Faux PasHere’s another Fox News violation of their Zero Tolerance policy for on-air mistakes. This morning Fox broadcast President Obama’s speech wherein he announced that the TARP program cost $200 billion less than originally anticipated. But on the Fox screen the number was reduced by $198 billion:

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, in a segment that appeared on Fox & Friends this morning, they displayed this chart of a poll that managed to interview 120% of the American people. I guess if you have to distort data, it helps if you don’t know how to add. It probably also helps if your viewers are similarly challenged.

Never mind that Fox continues to rely on the disreputable Rasmussen organization for polling, even that suspect data is further distorted by the Fox News graphics department. As for the poll itself, Rasmussen asked:

“In order to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming, how likely is it that some scientists have falsified research data?”

I would have answered that question “Very likely.” Of course “some scientists” have falsified data. However, I would have been referring to scientists at Exxon or the American Enterprise Institute, not those with universities or non-partisan environmental research facilities who overwhelming report honest figures that document Global Warming. By not drawing that distinction, Rasmussen has rendered his poll meaningless.

Just as a reminder, Fox said that errors such as these would result in those responsible being punished, and even terminated:

“Mistakes by any member of the show team that end up on air may result in immediate disciplinary action against those who played significant roles in the “mistake chain,” and those who supervise them. That may include warning letters to personnel files, suspensions, and other possible actions up to and including termination.”

At this rate, Fox isn’t going to have any employees at all by the end of the month.

Update: A Fox News spokesperson responded to the erroneous chart on Global Warming by claiming that it wasn’t erroneous:

“We were just talking about three interesting pieces of information from Rasmussen,” Petterson said. “We didn’t put on the screen that it added up to 100 percent.”

So at Fox News, if you don’t put up on the screen that it adds up to 100 percent, you can put in whatever numbers you want. Even their own host, Steve Doocy, added up the numbers to point out that 90+ percent think scientists falsify data.

This explains why the new Fox policy of Zero Tolerance will never work. They can’t count up to hundred. Hell, they can’t even count up to zero.

And on a side note, this blatant misrepresentation of the poll results occurred on poll about people misrepresenting data. So Fox wants to make you believe that the scientists are not trustworthy when they themselves are falsifying data. Cute, isn’t it?

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4 thoughts on “Fox News Faux Pas: Math Is Hard

  1. why even bother coming to work when youre a fox news employee? they might as well have monkeys working in the back room.

  2. Fer cryin out loud…

    Johnny Dollar, noted Fox fluffer, is complaining because I attributed the misleading chart above to Fox’s graphics department. Well, the graphics department actually did produce that chart. What’s his problem? That doesn’t mean that they did the study, just that they did the chart.

    But even more ludicrous is his complaint that I referenced Fox’s use of the Rasmussen polling firm. J$ counters that Fox uses Opinion Dynamics for their polling. HUH? It says Rasmussen right at the top of the chart. I even went to the Rasmussen site to confirm that data came from there. Who cares that Fox also uses other polling services that aren’t a part of this story?

    J$ has always been a partisan hack, but he really seems to be losing his grip on reality now.

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