Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight Are on ABC’s Chopping Block

I’m regularly surprised at how disappointed I am when I visit the site given how popular or how high its profile is. So often it’s content is some combination of boring, repetitive or uninspired.

1) Their most unique and interesting content is only salient during major elections.

2) They don't want to be pundits. They want to be statisticians.

For many of us, #2 sounds like a benefit. But the reality is that people want opinionated commentary. The core message of FiveThirtyEight is that everyone else is biased and over-confident.

I think they're right, but it's not really entertainment.

So, 27% chance of the outcome that happened, 57% chance of R winning both houses.

Really not bad, considering, and _far_ better than most other places.

Please observe closely the manner in which the accusation "misleading the American public" is deployed. Truly we are headed for dangerous waters in our public discourse if we are not there already. How was Silver supposed to address whatever it was???