I am a fan of NBC. This probably stems from our local news affiliate, WGAL, who blows other news stations out of the water. Forget about FOX, who's news cast seems forced and unnatural. In my world it's all about NBC. However, I do have one complaint about one aspect of NBC's coverage last night of the election.
I respect the fact that it's hard to broadcast all evening and night on the same, unchanging topic. So it's only natural to try and spice things up with different interviews from different perspectives. I don't mind that. What I do mind is distorting figures to tilt an interview in a certain direction.
Later in the evening, NBC decided to talk about youth voting. In the segment they talked about how of the voters this year, 17% were of the youngest voting age group (18-29, if I remember NBC's chart correctly. Let me know below if I'm wrong.) Which is the same percentage as four years ago. They then talked to Sean "P. Diddy" Combes about the failure of his and similar group's efforts to increase youth voting.
Now, what I understood of the numbers NBC gave, 17% of the total voters were in the lower age group. That means that for every 100 people who voted, 17 were in the younger third. What NBC failed to mention is that those numbers alone don't tell us how many youth and young adults voted. The 17% can be any number, dependant on the total number of voters.
All of the initial reports have been that this year has seen an explosion in voter turnout. The graph NBC gave suggests that we haven't seen a voter turnout this big since the 60's. So that 17% represents a lot bigger number than four years ago.
Perhaps none of this matters too much. But I do hate to see a member of a non-profit, non-partisan group field questions on figures that don't accurately represent their goal. They're not competing, out trying to make more young adults than old farts vote. They just want to see more young adult voters.
Article comments
1 - MrPC
All the networks did this.
For some reason they couldn't connect these two facts:
"The same % of youth voted..."
"Turnout in 2004 is the best in a long time, about 120 million people voted"
To me it seems obvious that the actual number of young people voting went up, but then again, most of us are too intelligent to do Election Night Coverage for a network.
2 - The Theory
that's sad.
they know full well what the numbers mean. i guarentee it.
3 - Harry Booker
Why do you guys want to screw up a perfectly good news story with logic, common sense and fundamental math? Jeesh!
4 - Anna
They're doing the same thing with the popular vote. They're saying that Bush got more votes than any other president in recent history. Yeah, well, with high turnout that's gonna happen. What they fail to mention (that ole "liberal" media) is that he also got the highest number of votes *against* him in recent history.
It's not about volume, it's about percentage.
5 - Eric Olsen
good point Theory, thanks! I Saw the same interview and I think P. Puffy Diddy Daddy did a pretty good job of making the point that the percentage was somewhat misleading because the total jumped so much - the youth vote jumped along with it, which was in no way guaranteed without the efforts of the various get out the vote campaigns.
6 - The Theory
he tried to make the point... but his bumbling, unplanned way of speaking kind of got in his way... making him sound more defensive and appologetic than educated and happy the turnout.
7 - Eric Olsen
there was that as well
8 - Ken
I think you're wrong here. The point of the youth voter initiatives that I saw was to increase the percentage of young adult voters, and, to quote one of the groups, "Take back the election" - meaning "take it back from the older demographic, who don't share our views (that is, the views of those funding the initiatives)."
If the relative young adult share of the total vote didn't increase, then these groups didn't get the job done that they were founded (and funded) to do. Simple as that.
You're partially right, though: the young adults did increase their total numbers (if not their percentage of the total votes cast). But, unfortunately for the left, young adults (and America, once again) clearly saw Bush as a better candidate. That's a tough pill to swallow, and liberals are licking their oozing, gaping wounds today.
At least we were spared the 45 days of uncertainty.
9 - Natalie Davis
Yeah, now all we have to do is look ahead to four years of certain misery.