So, more information is coming in today, now that it is official, on Nate's decision to move to ESPN (I was about to correct myself and call him Silver, but the truth is that he is one of those guys who are referred to by people who follow him closely by his first name, even though most of us have never met him).
I did not realize at first that ESPN is not following the same model as the NYT, who just licensed fivethirtyeight; ESPN has bought Nate out. The amount has not yet been disclosed, but I assume will leak out eventually; I will be interested in learning what that number is, I'm sure it is a big one. It is also more clear now than before that the move to ESPN should not be seen as Nate getting out of politics and moving back to sports. It really is more of a matter of Nate extending his footprint along the lines of his terrific book "The Signal and the Noise". It looks like Nate will continue to blog on politics, in the same focused way during the national election cycles, and as it strikes his fancy in the off season, but to that he will be adding sports, but also business and weather and things like the Oscars (he has already taken a few turns at this, though not his most successful area). It will not shock me if he takes a few swings at predicting things like the success of new television programs, so he may be on-topic in several ways for this list in the future. The parts of what he does that relate to sports will get him seen as guests on a number of ESPN television platforms, though today ESPN denied that widely reported claim that he will somehow be a dedicated part of Olbermann's show. Margaret Sullivan reported today on her blog that Nate was a disruptive force in the NYT newsroom culture, and that more than a few traditional and successful political reporters did not like him. I interpret that as being a result of Nate's war on punditry - roughly, the NYT equivalents of Skip Bayless were getting tired of Nate calling them on their bullshit (that is a little unfair, because there are no real equivalents of Skip Bayless at the NYT, but it is in that direction). Both Sullivan and Nate caution us not to put very much weight in this aspect of things on his decision to leave, but it is notable that Nate seemed to suggest that he would like the people at ESPN more than the people at the NYT - that must make the NYT newsroom a really unpleasant place. It would be great if Nate could start taking on the blowhards at ESPN. Contrary to some perceptions, Nate is not some kind of Asperger's Savant who only looks at numbers and nothing else. In fact, he has a very healthy understanding of the limits of quantitative analysis, in sports and everywhere else (in the interview he points out that he has gotten too much credit for being right, and when he inevitably gets a high profile prediction wrong, he will get too much blame for that too. He does not expand much on it, but for example, it is misleading to describe him as having gotten 50 of 50 state presidential races correct last November, since 35 to 40 of those are not competitive, and everyone gets them right. He should be judged on how he did with the 12 or so battleground states, and many of those are and will always be close enough that even the best predictions will be wrong on occasion). But Nate is committed to evidence-based decision making, and in that sense is a very welcome anti-Jenny McCarthy, Dick Morris and Skip Baylis. The more young people are exposed to him in various parts of popular culture, the better. Maybe he can also take that other empty chair at The View? Margaret Sullivan: http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/nate-silver-went-against-the-grain-for-some-at-the-times/?smid=tw-share Josh Voorhees Report from the ESPN roll out interview: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113988/nate-silvers-new-site-espn-going-be-his-grantland -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
