Fox News has been taking some heat from Pro-Trump Conservatives ever since election night on November 3.
The cause? The heavily right-leaning network accurately called both Arizona and Virginia for Joe Biden before many other networks--even the liberal ones--did.
Fox, famous for its all Trump, all the time viewpoint over the last few years, fell victim to the wildly confusing dynamics wrought by this presidential election in particular.
Just take a look at right-winger Sebastian Gorka's fuming complaint posted immediately after Fox News dubbed Biden winner of Virginia.
Admittedly, the image invited some cognitive dissonance. At the time Fox News first projected Biden winner of Virginia, he trailed Trump by nearly 12 percentage points.
But this is an extremely common practice used by news networks and publications as the results roll in. Millions of dollars and teams of people have been delegated to studying the numbers for hours and hours to ensure accurate predictions.
In the case of Virginia, although the earliest counted votes went Trump's way, it was evidently clear to Fox News that the remaining untallied votes would shake out for a Biden victory.
Just imagine if every news station couldn't predict anything until all votes came in. They'd be twittling their thumbs until 1 am and nobody would be able to play with those awesome electronic map screens.
Nonetheless, Gorka's post riled the masses.
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The same drama played out after Fox News predicted Biden would win Arizona as well. In that case, outrage came from an even more formal source: the Trump Campaign itself.
Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller took to Twitter:
Like Gorka's outburst, Miller's stirred the pot.
All that social media noise, however, had almost nothing to do with what happened in those states.
On Wednesday, the following day, the Associated Press and other sources called Virginia and Arizona for Biden. Fox News was indeed one of the earliest to call them--and was correct.
This was a weird election. With so many people voting by mail to avoid possible exposure to the virus, counting votes has been a long, drawn-out process. "Election night" ought to be more aptly called "election week."
But in a world of social media, nobody has time for that kind of patience. Instead, whatever info is available is plenty to yell some stuff on the internet.
