SALON

Friday, Nov 30, 2012 5:05 PM UTC

Nate Silver: Politico is dumb

On Bill Simmons' podcast, Silver says the site tries to cover politics like sports, "but not in an intelligent way"

By

Topics: Nate Silver, Politico, Bill Simmons,

Nate Silver: Politico is dumb

Joe Scarborough has apologized to Nate Silver. But it looks like the stats guru would still like a word with the folks at Politico.

In an appearance on Bill Simmons’ The BS Report podcast today, Silver took aim at the site, which dismissed him as a “one-term celebrity” in an article prior to the election. (Turns out Silver correctly called all 50 states for the second presidential election in a row.)

Silver says, according to Business Insider: “What’s remarkable for me is that you had some journalist for Politico who Tweeted out ‘All Nate’s doing is averaging polls and counting electoral votes? That’s the secret sauce?’ Well, yeah, and the fact that you can’t comprehend that very basic thing, that says more about you than it does about me, right?”

After Simmons calls the Politico hit piece “passive aggressive,” Silver replies that, “Politico is a ‘who won the day’ kind of thing, right? They’re trying to cover (politics) like sports, but not in an intelligent way at all. They want to create noise, basically.”

We’d say that’s about 99.94 percent right.

David Daley is the executive editor of Salon. More David Daley.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 15 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations