After Mocking 'Scool' Spelling, GMA Makes Two Math Mistakes

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Dispatch from the Department of Glass Houses . . .

The Good Morning America crew had a bunch of yucks today at the expense of the Sparks, NV streets department employee who spelled "scool" on the asphalt. But within minutes, two ABCers made math mistakes of their own, one of a political sort, the other climate-related.

RON CLAIBORNE: In Sparks, Nevada, someone in the streets department could use a spelling lesson. A sign painted on the street announces a nearby facility is a "s-c-o-o-l" [sound of Claiborne chuckle]. The city plans to fix the sign as soon as possible. That's a first look at the headlines, back to Bill and Kate. Everybody knows school is spelled with a "k."

Great guffaws ensue.

View video here.

BILL WEIR: There you go. Hooked on phonics: Ron Claiborne. Let's turn to Marisol Castro. You know better, as a former teacher.

MARISOL CASTRO: Those teachers [?] would get an "F" if they were in my class.

But then it was GMA's turn to trip up. First came John Hendren, who concluded a segment on the Dem primary race this way: "Obama concedes he's likely to lose the next nomination contest, in West Virginia on Tuesday. He's pinning his hopes on Oregon, where he hopes to win enough to clinch the nomination."

Sorry, John. Even if Obama were to win all the delegates at stake in Oregon, he would still be well short of the 2,025 needed to clinch the nomination. At best he would assure himself a majority of elected delegates. But the supers could still hand the nomination to Hillary.

Next was Bill Weir's interview of "the Twister Sisters," two tornado experts. The gist was that—surprise!—global warming is responsible for the large number of cyclones this season. So eager was Weir to make the Goreian case that, in introducing the segment, he claimed that "so far some 730 tornadoes have touched down this year, more than double the number for all of last year." There was only one problem, as you'll see from the screen graphic displayed as Weir spoke . . .

I say we send John and Bill back to math "scool."

NB: As for global warming being responsible for an unusually large number of tornadoes this season, I wonder whether Weir and the Twister Sisters had April in mind? You know, the coolest April in 11 years, the April with the average temperature of 51.0 F, -1.0 F cooler than the 20th-century average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years.