Brian Williams And NYT Journalist Roasted After They Fail Basic Math On Air

Math, as many of us know, is hard. Journalism is also hard. But fact-checking this tweet that had Brian Williams and a NYT journalist agog on the air should have been pretty easy.

Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential primary Wednesday morning after spending an astronomical $500 million on television ads in the race and failing to win a single state (Bloomberg did win American Samoa). The massive waste of cash naturally led people to imagine the better causes on which Bloomberg could have spent that money. Writer Mekita Rivas came up with a simply jaw-dropping statistic: in America, there are 327 million people, and if Bloomberg instead gave one million dollars to each American, he would have over 170 million dollars leftover.

If you had to read the tweet a few times to understand the issue here, you're not alone. Many were stunned at the statistic and it quickly went viral, before people pointed out the obvious error: 1 million times 327 million is 327 trillion. Bloomberg would need more money than there is on the planet to pull off this act of incredible philanthropy. Rivas locked her account shortly after the gaffe and added, "I know, I'm bad at math" to her bio.

The story should have ended there, but because we live in hell world, it made it all the way to MSNBC, where Brian Williams and NYT editorial board member Mara Gay repeated Rivas' tweet unironically to gawk at Bloomberg's wealth.

This is the stupidest thing that has ever aired on television. Congratulations to all involved. pic.twitter.com/vARi9yQ0Bv

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 6, 2020

Rightfully, the pair were roasted for uncritically repeating Rivas' incorrect math.

MSNBC’s Brian Williams reads a tweet: "Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. U.S. Population, 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million"NYT Editorial Board Member Mara Gay: “It’s an incredible way of putting it. It’s true. It’s disturbing”It's $1.53 per person pic.twitter.com/dIiwCESgh8

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 6, 2020

the craziest part of this insane clip is when Brian Williams says "don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math" and you think he's about to realize on air that it's wrong-- and he doesn't. https://t.co/MAj2WxMYWp

— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) March 6, 2020

The thing about the MSNBC math mistake is that it wasn't even really a math mistake. It's two otherwise intelligent people who don't feel competent to even attempt math, maybe because the way we teach it in schools makes it seem abstruse and scary and most of us just give up.

— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) March 6, 2020

The thing about the MSNBC math mistake is that it wasn't even really a math mistake. It's two otherwise intelligent people who don't feel competent to even attempt math, maybe because the way we teach it in schools makes it seem abstruse and scary and most of us just give up.

— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) March 6, 2020

Brian Williams later issued an on-air correction about this bungle:"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 … I stand corrected. Sorry about that. The tweet is wrong." https://t.co/e4Q0dsZY9O

— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) March 6, 2020

While the trio of Rivas, Gay and Williams each got the math catastrophically wrong, I believe it's safe to say that we all agree Mike Bloomberg should start giving people a million dollars and we'll see what happens. I volunteer.