Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.
Oh Politico! You're going to have to wake up a lot earlier in the morning to sneak a fast one by your humble correspondent. And in this case, Politico tried to sneak a major story change by at 1:18 in the afternoon. What happened is that at 12:48 PM today, Politico published a story about Bernie Sanders staying in the race. That is big news since it means that Sanders will probably stick it out he until he goes to the Democrat convention in late July. However, if you now go to the story, you will see that Sanders will probably exit from the race soon. So what happened? Politico completely changed both the headline and the first couple of paragraphs of the story with a 1:18 PM update to give it an almost completely new meaning. First let us analyze the two headlines starting with the original which was replaced a half hour later:
Sanders: I'm staying in the race
That was the 12:48 headline which was replaced a half hour later with the 1:18 version with a very different meaning:
Sanders signals the end is near
Unfortunately for Politico, their attempt to toss the original headline down the memory hole left behind evidence in the URL of the story:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-staying-in-race-224126
But wait...there's MORE!!! Not satisfied with just changing the headline of the story to give it new meaning, Politico also changed the first couple of paragraphs. How do I know? Because, fortunately, I posted the story, just 3 minutes before the Politico sanitization, with those original paragraphs preserved at the Free Republic. Here are the original two paragraphs that make it appear that Sanders will be sticking it out until the convention:
After spending an hour meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, Bernie Sanders vowed to stay in the race for Tuesday's District of Columbia primary while acknowledging that he would work with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in the general election.
Sanders ticked through a list of his priorities, promising to take those issues to the convention in Philadelphia next month.
Now look at how Politico changed those paragraphs at 1:18 PM:
Bernie Sanders on Thursday gave the strongest signals yet that he is ready to soon bow out of the presidential race, telling reporters after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House that he will ally himself with Hillary Clinton in the fight against Donald Trump.
But he's not quite ready to go yet.
If not quite a 180 change in the meaning of the story then at least a 178 degree change. So who at Politico decided the original 12:48 PM version gave too much credence to the idea that the Sanders campaign was going to endure up until the convention which necessitated the drastic 1:48 PM revision? Was it the author Nick Gass or one of the editors? And was there any input from perhaps someone in the Obama administration or the campaign of the "presumptive nominee" that influenced the change?
Come clean, Politico. Oh, and please try to be a little less obvious the next time you try to sneak a fast one by your readers.
