21 Comments
User's avatar
Cody's avatar

Poor Fivey Fox 😭

Jaye BM's avatar

Rest in power, Fivey

Frank Greenagel II's avatar

Awful. I've been using the Flint Michigan article to teach my Rutgers students about investigative journalism, data, public policy and public trust for 9 years. If you can provide me a link to wherever it lives, I'll save it to a word document.

Caleb Begly's avatar

The Internet Archive Wayback machine has it cached for now. If you put the old link in there, you can get it and save it.

Danny's avatar

This was a wonderful read, thank you. As someone very much inspired by FiveThirtyEight and an avid follower, this confirmed a lot of what I knew.

Specifically, I really enjoyed the call outs for Clare Malone. She got hosed, and she is/was SUCH a powerful voice. She changed my mind on issues multiple times, and her perspective never felt forced in the way a lot of political commentary can be. She clashed with you Nate in profound ways, never afraid to back down from a point, but also never in a way to try and destroy your own credibility. It was kind, not always nice.

I really miss it, but I'm so glad you all get back together for podcasts.

Casey's avatar

That Fivey Fox erasure gif is super bleak lol

Sharty's avatar

That last nugget, truly a silber lining that ties a bow on the whole thing.

I've been reading religiously since the DKos days, and I'd have been happy to pay for it since day one, even on a grad student's stipend. RIP, Fivey.

Lindainithaca's avatar

Nate, my heart goes out to you. I am so terribly sorry - all your early amazing work, makes me want to weep.

Kevin Barry's avatar

That Nataniel bit is too funny

Caleb Begly's avatar

Lol, that ending though. 😂

Pretty well sums up the attention are care of corporate Disney.

Nick H's avatar

I was a big fan of the sports reporting y'all did back then. (Yes, I do subscribe to Neil Paine's Substack now.) The fact that ABC cut that off first seems like a good indicator of how clueless they were.

tennisfan2's avatar

Thanks for the long-promised history, Nataniel!

Nolan Reese's avatar

I really loved that burrito bracket. Ate close to a dozen of them. Was just at Spencer McKenzies in Ventura last weekend

and got a little wistful when i saw the FiveThirtyEight plaque on the wall.

Tyler Webster's avatar

FWIW Grantland archives are still live, one of the top stories is about a fledgling interim NFL coach named Dan Campbell, wonder if it ever worked out for that guy...

Sharty's avatar

My face when I read that Grantland was killed off MORE THAN TEN YEARS AGO...

Mary Turnock's avatar

I know nothing about sports so this article is way over my head, but I’ve loved you since the early 538 days when I was hopeful that Trump wouldn’t win. I liked seeing any of your polling results that looked bad. I still like to read things by you because you are so self critical and smart that you seem trustworthy.

CYM's avatar

Just FYI, the hyperlink on this text "wrote about FiveThirtyEight’s disappearance" goes to a story about shutting down Grantland

Don Voss's avatar

Thanks for the insights Nate. If it matters, you're not alone. I can offer analogies replacing FiveThirtyEight with independent Las Vegas casino hotel operators and replacing Disney with Wall Street investment firms. In the end, just be extremely proud and fortunate for the opportunities to exceed in a relatively new industry, and be confident that Silver Bulletin most likely wouldn't exist without those experiences, and only make you wiser for the future.

Caleb Begly's avatar

RIP FiveThirtyEight again. At least the internet archive preserved a lot of the articles, but this is just sad