PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2020-03-06 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Bad math at MSNBC: Bloomberg’s ad spending wasn’t enough to give every American $1 million (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • MSNBC anchor Brian Williams aired a tweet during his TV show that said former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who self-funded his since-suspended presidential campaign, spent so much money on ads that he could have instead delivered every American a fortune. Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads, the tweet said. 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. Williams read from the tweet after it was introduced by Mara Gay, a member of the New York Times editorial board, who said that somebody tweeted recently that actually, with the money (Bloomberg) spent, he could’ve given every American a million dollars. how did this end up on tv? pic.twitter.com/xUYIOChhKv — andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) March 6, 2020 It’s an incredible way of putting it, Williams said after displaying the tweet on screen. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. A quick use of a calculator shows that $500 million divided by 327 million people is actually about $1.53 per person. That’s enough to buy a pack of gum or a Kit Kat bar at CVS, but it’s not breaking the bank. Williams quickly corrected the error on air, and the Twitter account for his TV show issued a correction and apology in a tweet posted hours after the show finished. Turns out Mara and I got the same grades at math, Williams said after a commercial break. I’m speaking of the tweet we both misinterpreted. He could give each American a dollar. The tweet is wrong, he said. Tonight on the air we quoted a tweet that relied on bad math. We corrected the error after the next commercial break and have removed it from later editions of tonight’s program. We apologize for the error. — 11th Hour (@11thHour) March 6, 2020 Gay also tweeted about the incident, saying she was buying a calculator, brb. As for the author of the original tweet, she switched her Twitter account settings to private but wrote in her bio, I know, I’m bad at math. Bloomberg did spend in the ballpark of $500 million on ads and other campaign-related finances , according to reports . And the census estimates that the U.S. population is a little more than 327 million people. But even at roughly $500 million, the billionaire didn’t spend nearly the amount of money he would've needed to give every American $1 million. That’s bad math. We rate this statement Pants on Fire! (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url