Somewhat unhappy ,

Edit (September 16 2020): I still enjoy listening to this podcast despite their extreme bias. They don’t even realize how biased they are. They talk about why people like Trump (9/14/20 episode) and totally ignore one of the biggest reasons, which is bias in the media. People love that Trump calls out the bias that reporters bring to the discussion. He recently did an interview with George Stephanopoulos and called him out for being a Democrat advocate. How many people watch ABC (or listen to 538) and don’t know GS is formerly senior advisor to Bill Clinton? And that he used strong arm tactics to silence women who BC harassed or assaulted?



Why is this relevant to 538? Because they ignore this huge factor when talking about why people stick with Trump. Maybe it’s because there are enough alternative media sources that people are no longer held in thrall to the major networks and their leftist bias.



Edit (July 14 2020): in the July 13th 2020 episode PBJ says there’s extremism only on one side of the back-to-school debate. Meanwhile Trump hosted a round table on July 7th that was actually very nuanced in which he said basically the benefits of going back to school outweigh the negatives. Nobody said there aren’t negatives. What solution do you propose, 538? Nate suggested kids go back to school but teachers stay home. Ok sure.

I guess it’s hard to admit nuance in your opponents’ position, Perry.



Original review (June 2020):

Five Thirty Eight has a good show when they’re talking just about data, and polling in particular. But they still can’t help but let their bias show. They had a guest say, unchallenged, on their June 12th, 2020 episode that Trump is an avowed white supremacist. Now I understand that this is an opinion lots of people hold, but I think the evidence is to the contrary. He said about the neo-nazis in Charlottesville that they “should be condemned totally.” And more recently he’s met with black leaders to try and find common ground and positive solutions. So letting someone say on your podcast an extreme opinion like that without any pushback is an indication of your strong bias and blindness to any different perspective. They have also refused to talk directly about Elizabeth Warren’s identity issues (she took a genetic test to try and prove Native American ancestry but the test showed she was less Native American than the average white American of European descent). That’s old news by now because the dem primaries are over, but it sticks in my memory. Anyway... despite these drawbacks and their biased perspective I still enjoy hearing the 538 politics crew talk from a mostly data driven angle about the political issues of the day. Would be nice if they also showed some intellectual curiosity about Obamagate.