2012-10-18
Explanation
This comic satirizes 24-hour cable news culture and election coverage. Two TV news anchors are discussing a slight change in election polls. The female anchor gives a perfectly rational, statistically literate response: "Well, the change is within margin of error, so speculation would be a waste of our time and our viewers." This is, of course, the correct answer -- minor poll fluctuations within the margin of error are statistically meaningless and provide no real information.
The male anchor then announces that since there is nothing meaningful to speculate about, all of the day'''s news opinion shows will be replaced by educational programming. The female anchor screams "AAAH!!" in horror, as if this is the worst possible outcome. The final panel reveals it was all a nightmare: someone wakes the female anchor, saying "Sandy, you fell asleep! We'''re on in two minutes!" She responds, "I had the most horrible nightmare."
The joke is that for a cable news pundit, the worst nightmare imaginable is not war, disaster, or personal tragedy -- it is the prospect of honest, statistically rigorous reporting that would render their jobs obsolete. The comic skewers the entire industry of political opinion shows that thrive on overanalyzing meaningless data fluctuations.
The votey panel features "Old Man Weinersmith Shakes His Fist at You" awarding this week'''s prize to "24 Hour News!" -- a self-referential bit where the cartoonist (Zach Weinersmith) acknowledges the comic'''s curmudgeonly stance toward cable news through a recurring gag format.