If you want to know what hubris is, check the interview done with Chris Stirewalt, late of Fox News, in the LA Times.

Fox News let Stirewalt and some other staffers go recently. When you listen to what he says, that may explain why they let him go.

You may recall that he was the former “politics editor” who made the early call on election night that Joe Biden had won Arizona before all the polls closed. Not only that but he also claimed that that the Democrats were projected to have held the House and picked up at least five seats.

From LA Times:

That’s why I was proud of our being first to project that Joe Biden would win Arizona, and very happy to defend that call in the face of a public backlash egged on by former President Trump. Being right and beating the competition is no act of heroism; it’s just meeting the job description of the work I love. But what happens now that there are almost no physical limits on the getting and giving of the news? [….]

The rebellion on the populist right against the results of the 2020 election was partly a cynical, knowing effort by political operators and their hype men in the media to steal an election or at least get rich trying. But it was also the tragic consequence of the informational malnourishment so badly afflicting the nation.

Can we talk about that nerve this takes?

He made an early call while the polls were still open. That’s wrong. Period. End of sentence. No matter how it turns out later.

Second, he forgot the rest of his prediction which was so very wrong, that Democrats would pick up five seats in the House. How’d that go, Chris? Republicans won every seat that was a toss-up and nearly took back the House, gaining 13 seats.

Moreover, where he called Arizona early and it ended very close, he refused to call places like Florida which was an obvious winner for President Donald Trump very early on.

He then tries to justify his shabby work by blaming the viewers and suggesting their anger is because of their ignorance. Wow. No, you made bad calls.

But that call was only the last straw that finally precipitated a lot of people away from the network, it followed a lot of similar reporting of which people ultimately became tired.

The focus on Arizona is one of the multiple stupid decisions he made. More egregious is that he wouldn’t call Florida when that was long over and immediately saying that the House Dems gained seats. Also if he can call Arizona then he should have called NC.

— BigJim (@BigJimNCPA) January 28, 2021

Too bad he still hasn’t told the truth about what he said on the air that night. Does he not remember saying the Repubs would lose 5 seats in the House or the Biden lead in Arizona would likely grow. Instead of admitting he was wrong, he doubles down and disparages viewers.

— Lou Segal (@lou_segal) January 28, 2021

HT: Twitchy