Jump to content

538 being shut down by ABC (they might sell to someone else)


Recommended Posts

230123-confider-nate-silver-hero-WEBSITE
WWW.THEDAILYBEAST.COM

In this week’s edition of Confider, we report how ABC News is considering offloading the star data journalist and his famed website.

 

They do interesting work...but I also question their integrity with how they weighted polls in the 2022 midterms. Plus Nate is a real dillweed.

  • True 1
  • Halal 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:
230123-confider-nate-silver-hero-WEBSITE
WWW.THEDAILYBEAST.COM

In this week’s edition of Confider, we report how ABC News is considering offloading the star data journalist and his famed website.

 

They do interesting work...but I also question their integrity with how they weighted polls in the 2022 midterms. Plus Nate is a real dillweed.

What specifically makes you question their integrity? To my knowledge Silver has always been pretty transparent about the weights applied in his model.  But my knowledge of him might not be that deep, I only read 538 every once in awhile and look at how his predictions shake out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Signifyin(g)Monkey said:

What specifically makes you question their integrity? To my knowledge Silver has always been pretty transparent about the weights applied in his model.  But my knowledge of him might not be that deep, I only read 538 every once in awhile and look at how his predictions shake out.

 

They gave more weight to bad pollsters in the last cycle than was warranted (e.g. Rasmussen). As a person, Nate Silver thinks that because he is an expert at stats, that makes him an expert at anything. He's made questionable comments about COVID-19 and other things. He intimated that "liberal elites" pushed to keep the vaccine from being released until after the 2020 election, and he also said that temporary school closures due to COVID were as harmful as the Iraq War.

  • Halal 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • CitizenVectron changed the title to 538 being shut down by ABC (they might sell to someone else)

I would be disappointed if 538 were to go away or shrink significantly. Yeah, Silver is a questionable presence on Twitter, but I like the content on the site. They're very transparent in how they model things, even if some of it doesn't work out. I think it's good to see high effort attempts at forecasting and statistics. I think it's only a problem when people treat a 538 forecast as something sacred absolute.

 

I especially like a lot of what they do with sports numbers, because it's educational on how statistics and data analysis work, but the stakes are non-existent. Reading through how they rank the best whatever of all time makes it clear how many decision points you come across, even when you're "just following the numbers".

 

The one thing that does surprise me is that the site has never been profitable. I feel like their numbers get brought up a lot in the discourse around elections, but I guess that doesn't drive enough traffic, or they're just not great at monetizing that traffic.

  • Halal 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I would be disappointed if 538 were to go away or shrink significantly. Yeah, Silver is a questionable presence on Twitter, but I like the content on the site. They're very transparent in how they model things, even if some of it doesn't work out. I think it's good to see high effort attempts at forecasting and statistics. I think it's only a problem when people treat a 538 forecast as something sacred absolute.

 

I especially like a lot of what they do with sports numbers, because it's educational on how statistics and data analysis work, but the stakes are non-existent. Reading through how they rank the best whatever of all time makes it clear how many decision points you come across, even when you're "just following the numbers".

 

The one thing that does surprise me is that the site has never been profitable. I feel like their numbers get brought up a lot in the discourse around elections, but I guess that doesn't drive enough traffic, or they're just not great at monetizing that traffic.

 

You'd think they would maybe license out their data to networks/etc, but I guess most networks already have their own analysts/modelers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I'm fairly certain that Disney is seriously considering spinning off ALL of ABC, not solely 538.

Don't think so. ABC News was very profitable for them during the Pandemic. They also have several hits on the channel that aren't expensive to produce... The Bachelor and Bachelorette series... Dancing With The Stars... shit like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...