The popular political poll news and analysis website, 538, is being shut down as part of a broader shuttering effort across ABC News and Disney Entertainment, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night.
Disney is reportedly cutting 200 positions across ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks, including shutting down the data-driven 538.
[...] FiveThirtyEight, which is named after the number of electors in the US electoral college, has become a popular website for predictions, analysis and watching the polls in the months and days leading up to election night.
But the website's workforce had been slowly dwindling for a couple of years. The 15 employees still with the outlet make up less than half of the team from 2023, when it had about 35 employees.
The decline began when 538's founder, Nate Silver, left the company two years ago when his Disney contract expired.
[...] The broader media landscape has been hit with mass layoffs seemingly nonstop for months. Last month, MSNBC announced a massive shakeup at the network that included letting go of Joy Reid and her production team, as well as no longer using the Spanish-language network Telemundo.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday March 12, @05:45AM (1 child)
While there is certainly a place for an unbiased poll agragater, 538 might once have been one (debatable), but more recently lapsed into an obvious right / conservative bias. I won't miss the 538 talking heads, there are plenty elsewhere for me to continue ignoring.
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday March 12, @08:13AM
Grateful for any suggestion.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Touché) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 12, @10:27AM (4 children)
There's no need to be worried about polling if the powers that be aren't planning to have real elections anymore.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Insightful) by HeadlineEditor on Wednesday March 12, @12:29PM (3 children)
You mean like Ukraine?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 12, @02:50PM
So is it just Ukraine that bothers you or are there others? If you are going to be a complete tool, might as well let everyone know now so we can ignore your nifty handle.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ewk on Thursday March 13, @07:42AM
The (current, temporary) lack of elections in Ukraine is totally in line with the Ukrainian Constitution.
They have this little thingy called 'invasion by Russia' going on.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EEMac on Thursday March 13, @01:21PM
And Romania [cnn.com]?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Username on Wednesday March 12, @03:13PM (1 child)
Was the largest employer of journalists. With the passing of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, that "aid" aka propaganda was made legal for us citizen consumption. That means the media in the US could apply for usaid, and get it long as they fulfilled thier obligation, parroting the talking points the unelected people in usaid wanted.
I assume it being gutted, has most media rebalancing their accounting to do without it.
(Score: 3, Redundant) by HeadlineEditor on Wednesday March 12, @03:25PM
Your point is completely valid. But do we know that 538 was getting USAID funds? I know there is a list floating around out there of recipients but I can't find it offhand.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 12, @05:00PM (1 child)
Just as it often happens when a mega corporation buys a much smaller business. They "integrate" it into the existing corporate structure, usually destroying whatever value it once provided, then it's thrown away when the shattered organization (shockingly. Not!) doesn't generate enough profit for the acquirer.
In the case of 538.com, it was even more so, as Nate Silver, as part of the deal to sell 538 to Disney, maintained ownership of the aggregation models he developed (which were what made 538 so useful and pretty darn accurate), making an even worse deal for Disney.
This result was inevitable, just corporations wasting money by driving their acquired businesses into the ground. Nothing political about it. It's just (bad) business.
If you're really interested in similar work to what 538.com used to do, Silver has a new site [natesilver.net].*
*This is not an endorsement of Nate Silver and/or his new site. I make no value judgements, as I don't frequent the site.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 12, @06:28PM
Oops. Included the link, but didn't check that I'd formatted it properly. In case some of you folks aren't familiar with Nate Silver, see link above.
Sorry about that.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr