Polling guru Nate Silver and Politico investigative reporter Ken Vogel lobbed angry messages at each other Friday on Twitter over, of all things, whether to call something a “clarification” or a “correction.”
At issue was an article Silver had written for the New York Times about GOP strategist Karl Rove’s new Conservative Victory Project, which was formed to back electable Republican candidates in order to win back a majority in the Senate.
After the article was published, Silver updated the piece and appended a clarification to the end explaining the change. Vogel thought that note should have been labled a “correction” instead, and he took to Twitter to complain. Silver fired back, and the battle was on.
“At this point you’re just being a troll and misleading your Twitter followers about what I wrote,” Silver wrote to Vogel. “Grow up.”
“I’m happy to have a debate about this in any forum you chose, but please try to stick to the merits & avoid name calling,” Vogel responded.
This isn’t the first time Silver has sparred with someone at Politico. In late November, he said the news outlet covers politics like sports but “not in an intelligent way at all.” Politico media reporter Dylan Byers also wrote critically of Silver ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
Responding to the spat, Silver told TPM in an email on Friday: “I’ve been pretty jetlagged and had forgotten that the first rule of the Internet is ‘don’t feed the trolls.’ Was a mistake for me to get involved on Twitter.”
Vogel did not respond to a request for comment. See the tweets below:
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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