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Strassel is just reaching embarrassing new lows.
I tried cross-referencing info in this “news article,” but it didn’t seem to be based on reality. So then I decided to look up whatever “MKE City Wire” was. Well... https://twitter.com/kimstrassel/status/1324237488563523584
I tried cross-referencing info in this “news article,” but it didn’t seem to be based on reality. So then I decided to look up whatever “MKE City Wire” was. Well... https://twitter.com/kimstrassel/status/1324237488563523584
Okay, so what’s Metric Media?
It’s the company NYT wrote about recently, a GOP PR shop mimicking local news sites. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html
It’s the company NYT wrote about recently, a GOP PR shop mimicking local news sites. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html
NYT first wrote about that company in 2019... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/us/michigan-metric-media-news.html
CJR referred to the operation as a series of “pink slime” sites https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/hundreds-of-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-are-distributing-algorithmic-stories-conservative-talking-points.php/
So already... very sketchy.
But the article Strassel cites doesn’t actually link back to any of the pages it’s claiming to get numbers from. And when you look them up independently, they don’t match up. Let’s look at an example...
(Additional images to show the headers) https://county.milwaukee.gov/EN/County-Clerk/Off-Nav/Election-Results/Election-Results-Fall-2020
Looking at the example of ward 274:
Gov website:
593 votes between Trump/Biden
611 total votes cast
702 registered voters
So... seems fine
Looking at the example of ward 274:
Gov website:
593 votes between Trump/Biden
611 total votes cast
702 registered voters
So... seems fine
What Strassel’s article claims:
1,290 votes between Trump/Biden
640 registered voters
Where tf is this article getting those numbers from? The article claims from the Milwaukee County Clerk, but as I pointed out in the previous tweet, that’s not what the MCC site says.
1,290 votes between Trump/Biden
640 registered voters
Where tf is this article getting those numbers from? The article claims from the Milwaukee County Clerk, but as I pointed out in the previous tweet, that’s not what the MCC site says.
This whole “Hey, let’s blast out this salacious article published on a phony news site with no byline and no links to its data sources. Could be true! Who’s to say?” thing isn’t just bad on an ideological level, but on an ethical level, too.
She’s an opinion writer. She’s very conservative. Okay. That’s fine.
But she still works for a newspaper and should know unbelievably unethical it is to blast articles like that out into the world. This isn’t a criticism of her views, but of her ethics.
But she still works for a newspaper and should know unbelievably unethical it is to blast articles like that out into the world. This isn’t a criticism of her views, but of her ethics.
She either needs to provide legitimate sources to back up her claims, which seem to have been pulled from thin air, or she needs to apologize for spreading disinformation and delete her post.
