Nate Silver was a big figure for his time, but I think that many folks are viewing polling with a deserved skepticism at the same time certain organizations come to understand that “manufactured” polls can sell the narrative they need to survive and maintain the status quo.

His departure is one of mixed feelings for me, on one hand I felt like he was at least principled. I don’t exactly know the predecessor, but I imagine the network wanted more flexibility in crafting a narrative than doing real forecasting. On the OTHER hand, his name was starting to get attached to everything and I think it led to an outsize ego that ultimately was going to slowly poison things. IMO - it was only a matter of time before we saw someone new. It’s just that the context here gives me pause as to if the replacement is better or worse.

I think I’ll have to wait and see…