Brian Williams Roasted for Simple Math Error While Discussing Bloomberg's Campaign Budget on MSNBC

Brian Williams is getting roasted on social media, after making a simple math error while [...]

By Stephen Andrew

Brian Williams is getting roasted on social media, after making a simple math error while discussing Mike Bloomberg's campaign budget on MSNBC. In a clip that has since gone viral, Williams and New York Times editorial board members Mara Gay shared a tweet from a user, who suggested Bloomberg could have taken the $500 million he spent on TV ads, and instead given $1 million to each of the 327 million Americans, with money left over.

This, however, is not accurate, and many social media users very quickly took notice.

"It wasn't just Brian Williams and Mara Gay. There's a director, there's a producer, there's a graphics person... Either all of them are dopes or Brian Williams' staff really hates him," one person commented.

"People are piling on Brian Williams but let's be fair: math can get really fuzzy when you're riding in a Chinook helicopter in Iraq that comes under imaginary RPG fire & then you have an imaginary emergency landing," another user said, referring to Williams' past controversy of lying about being in a military helicopter that was shot down.

"Mara Gay of the New York Times and Brian Williams of MSNBC claimed tonight that Mike Bloomberg could have given every American one million dollars and still had money left over afterwards. I didn't realize Mike Bloomberg had $327 trillion dollars," another person joked.

"The really scary part about this botched math story is how many people had to see and approve it before it even went on the air," a fourth person chided. "We're being told how to live, speak, behave, and vote by a smug elite media that is stone-cold-stupid."

At this point, neither Williams not MSNBC appear to have commented on the mathematical flub.

Photo Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images

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