UPDATE 11/12/20 8:00 a.m.: Fox News finally told its viewers that its election analysis unit botched its projection about Democrats’ non-existent “gains” in the House of Representatives. From American Greatness:
Fox News finally acknowledged eight days after the election that the Fox News Decision Desk incorrectly projected that Democrats would gain five seats in the House.
[“Special Report” anchor Bret] Baier did give the Fox News Decision Desk credit for correctly projecting that Democrats would retain the House—something most political prognosticators predicted would happen—before admitting that the Decision Desk got their prediction about Democrat gains in the House wrong.
“Democrats have clinched a majority in the House by reaching 218 seats,” Baier announced Wednesday evening.
“There are still a handful of races undecided. On election night, the FOX News Decision Desk correctly predicted soon after 9:00 Eastern that Democrats would retain control of the House. But they also estimated Democrats would add about five seats to their majority,” said Baier. “That did not occur. Republicans have gained six seats with multiple races yet to be decided.”
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Fox News still has not rescinded its false projection that Democrats would gain at least five states during last Tuesday’s election.
On Election Night, Fox News Channel’s decision desk “called the House” and declared Democrats would keep their majority and even add seats to it, even while several districts were still voting.
The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that Dems will retain control of the House..& expand their majority by at least 5 seats. This is a major boost for..House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has pledged to roll back much of Trump’s first-term agenda if he loses reelection
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) November 4, 2020
We now know, however, that Republicans are just shy of taking back the majority in the House after winning up to 13 seats.
Not a single Republican incumbent lost, and Republican challengers won over several Democratic districts that were extremely competitive.
Fox News has not rescinded its inaccurate projection, and has not explained why it did not wait for the final results to come in.
When the network was asked about its premature predictions by American Greatness, Fox News’ corporate communications Vice President Irena Briganti chose not to respond.
Fox News has also come under fire for calling Arizona for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden hours before any other network.
Even after President Trump began to close Biden’s lead, Fox News refused to reconsider its call, spurring a “catastrophic ratings collapse” as conservative viewers boycotted the network.
Conservative columnist Christopher Gage argued in American Greatness that Fox News’ premature predictions hurt Trump by discouraging voters who were still waiting to vote in West Coast districts, and encouraging leftist networks that were all too eager to call the race for Biden.
“Prior to Fox News’ erroneous calling of Arizona, bookmakers gave President Trump an 83 percent chance of reelection, considering his seemingly unassailable leads in the battleground states,” Gage wrote. “Following that call, President Trump slipped to 60 percent. Then to 50. You know the rest.”
Biden’s vote advantage over Trump is currently less than 13,000 votes in Arizona, a .39 percent edge.
