The going joke that journalists are not masters at math just got a little more living proof Thursday.
MSNBC’s Brian Williams became that walking, breathing quip Thursday night, along with his guest Mara Gay, a New York Times editorial board member, which has led to much teasing from Twitterverse.
It all started where numerous erroneous concepts do − a tweet.
Williams and Gay were analyzing the defunct presidential campaign of former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, specifically his spending during his run. They both say that the campaign spending was excessive. To solidify their point, the media personalities projected onscreen a tweet from Super Tuesday as a prime example of the exorbitant spending.
Williams pulled up the tweet, which has been deleted. It read: “Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. 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 people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST.”
Neither of the journalists pointed out that the math is incorrect. Instead of $1 million per American, the numbers would play out to be a little more than $1.50 per person.
Their additional comments after projecting the tweet during the newscast revealed neither noticed this arithmetic error.
“It’s an incredible way of putting it,” Williams gushed.
“It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true,” Gay agreed.
The responses were relentless on Twitter on Friday morning and afternoon.
Some gave the two on-air talents some slack, noting that the production staff could have helped avoid the blunder.
Williams apologized on-air shortly after the segment featuring the tweet, noting that he and Gay both “misrepresented it.”
"While I have you both and our audience paying attention, turns out Mara and I got the same grades at math. I'm speaking of the tweet we both misinterpreted. He could give each American $1," he said. "Again, I didn't have it in high school. I don't have it tonight. I stand corrected. Sorry about that. The tweet is wrong."
Gay found the chatter humorous, tweeting she would soon be purchasing a calculator.
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