CNN Totally Screws Up Simple Math – Can’t Calculate Redactions in Mueller Report!

Guest post by Joe Hoft

CNN totally screwed up a simple calculation when referring to the amount of redactions in the Mueller report.  Their miscalculation overstated their projected amount of redactions through a very elementary math error.

CNN reported last week that the percent of redactions in the Mueller report was more than 12%.  The problem was their calculation was erroneous.

CNN claimed that the equivalent number of pages redacted in the Mueller report was 36 pages.  They based this on their convoluted estimates of redactions in the report.  They updated their report to state the following –

Counting the number of lines required making judgment calls, including approximating the number of individual lines in blackened paragraphs and the fraction of a line of redacted text. As a rule of thumb, we rounded redacted lines to the nearest approximate half line.

By our best estimate, the entire Mueller report includes 946 unique redactions and 1,657.5 redacted lines. We counted that a maximum of 46 lines could fit on a page, meaning that just over 36 pages worth — or 8% — of the 448-page report is redacted.

https://twitter.com/GabLeitao/status/1120318747598782464

CNN updated their report with a correction –

CNN flip-flopped the denominator and the numerator in their simple calculation which further proves their reporting is flip-flopped.  What’s up is down and what’s bad is good according to CNN.