Posted On: Monday - March 9th 2020 6:26PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Internets Media Stupidity
This past Friday Peak Stupidity featured some highly-innumerate (6 orders-of-magnitude) stupidity seen on MSNBS. The two talking heads got their "source information" from a tweet by one Mekita Rivas. Just based on a comment I'd read, I'd thought that Miss Rivas was "trolling" the two "journalist" who repeated her new math on the TV.
Nope, it turns out that Miss Rivas is also really bad at math. Per this Newsweek* article, the woman was not kidding, and is just really bad at arithmetic. She likes to tweet out pictures of the her food, her slim body, and how to pronounce her first name, so ... there's that ...
I'll tell you what Miss Rivas: You learn how to divide, and then I'll learn how to pronounce your name.
Here's some of this now-infamous tweeter's biography from commenter "Hail" on the unz website:
HI, I’M MEKITA RIVAS.(I really want to be sympathetic here to this lady, but that "lens of gender and race" crap makes that difficult.) Miss Rivas is the artsy-fartsy type, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think the problem is with the tweeting in general. People make some really stupid mistakes in what they write and say (I've been there) and regret them. There's just a lot more regret when it's in the form of a tweet ridiculed due to its being believed and broadcasted by two dipshit talking heads on TV.
I’m a freelance journalist and creative consultant based in Washington, D.C. I’m currently an in-house copywriter at [solidcore] and a contributing writer at Refinery29. My writing has also been published in The Washington Post, Architectural Digest, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Glamour, Brides, Teen Vogue, Self, and others. I primarily cover culture, fashion, travel, and wellness through the lens of gender and race. As a consultant, I work with clients on content strategy, copywriting, and editorial best practices.
I earned my undergraduate degrees in journalism and English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My current creative projects include a short film screenplay and a collection of personal essays. I also maintain a lifestyle blog on this site.
When not writing — or thinking about writing — I enjoy high intensity workouts, calming yoga sessions, sustainably sourced food and wine, and planning my next escapade.
I can't blame Miss Rivas for privatizing all of her on-line presence after this gaffe, per the Newsweek article. The fact that two esteemed (haha) journalists repeated the error with not a lick of DIMS thinking shows us where the high stupidity lies. Oh, per the article, lets blame it on the production team (OK a bit) and racism and sexism:
Another Twitter user noted that the show's production staff is as at fault for the mistake as Williams and Gay, and characterized the criticisms of Gay as sexist and racist.OK, here's one of the "criticisms" per Newsweek's James Crowley:
Many people on Twitter have criticized Williams and Gay for their error. Journalist Michael Tracey wrote how much money Bloomberg would actually need to have in order to give each person a million dollars. Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra wrote that the actual amount Bloomberg's ad spending would measure out to would be $1.53 per person.That's EXACTLY what the 2 tweets below this excerpt (in the article) say. It's not criticism but simply correction. Man, these people are sensitive! This Crowley writer is a hack too. It's all journalistic stupidity, one after another, right on down the chain of command!
* Yeah, apparently they are still around.
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