Brian Stelter tries to attack Marco Rubio with false equivalence

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CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter made himself the target of mockery on Monday for constructing a false equivalence to attack Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

While discussing the erosion of “trust in institutions” and “decades of lying about government” with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, Stelter suddenly attacked Rubio — despite the lawmaker not being a topic of discussion — for what Stelter suggested was hypocrisy.

‘The jobs numbers were consistently revised downward over the past few years. The chances of the hurricane missing his state is basically zero. Do you see the problem?’

“Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, who, on Friday, was tweeting about the ‘fake’ jobs report, sowing doubt about the government statistics,” Stelter said. “Today, he is imploring his constituents to believe the government forecast, to take the government information seriously, to believe the government data.

“What a difference three days makes for Marco Rubio — and he’s supposed to be one of the more responsible ones,” he sneered.

Stelter, drawing attention to his false equivalence, added on X, “See the problem?”

The problem with Stelter’s juxtaposition is threefold.

First, Stelter appeared to be suggesting that if someone believes one government agency about one thing, he must believe every government agency about everything.

Second, meteorological forecasts from government agencies are perhaps one of the last areas of government not to be infected by hyper-politicization. Meteorologists aren’t concerned how their forecasts impact politics; they’re trying to save lives and keep people informed to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, the monthly jobs report is one of the most politicized government reports.

Third, Rubio called last week’s job report “fake” because he recognizes the pattern of jobs reports under the Biden administration: The preliminary report shows positive numbers, only for those figures to be revised later, showing that job growth wasn’t actually as good as first claimed.

Stelter was quickly called out on social media, and his question — “see the problem?” — was turned around on him:

“Yes Brian, but you don’t. The NOAA hurricane alerts have been accurate, they have not yet been politicized, so they can be trusted.
The jobs reports have been revised down for at least 8 months, don’t accurately represent the real state of jobs in the US. They cannot be trusted,” one person pointed out.
“You can’t possibly be serious…
There is no history of every weather forecaster faking hurricane predictions for some sort of mysterious political gain.

There is with the jobs numbers, and the political motivation is obvious.

Also, no lives are at stake with the jobs numbers!” another person replied.
“So the rule is that if you ever believe any government agency on anything you must believe all government agencies on everything,” one person responded.
“Holy hell Brian this is dumb even by your nonexistent standards,” another person noticed.
“No. The jobs numbers were consistently revised downward over the past few years. The chances of the hurricane missing his state is basically zero. Do you see the problem?” one person responded.