Last night at 11:31 p.m., as shown here at the Columbus Dispatch, the Associated Press's Beth Fouhy was treating the special congressional electoral contest in NY-09 as if Democrat David Weprin would likely fend off the challenge from Republican Bob Turner.
The 11:31 p.m. time stamp appears to be accurate, since only about a half-hour earlier, at 10:56 p.m., Fouhy put up a brief item at an AP-hosted site about how the ballot counting was proceeding slowly. Twenty-six minutes later, at 11:57 p.m., as seen in this tweet, foolish Fouhy called the race for Turner.
Here are the first few comedic paragraphs from Fouhy's 11:31 p.m. dispatch. Note how it is written from Weprin's point of view as the presumptive front-runner, how Fouhy waits until the second paragraph to note the lastest results, and how in the third paragraph treats Turner's (not mentioned until the 16th paragraph) six-point poll lead as "slight":
Democrat David Weprin faced an unusually tight race against Republican Bob Turner in a special election Tuesday in New York's heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District, where voters unhappy with President Barack Obama could elect a Republican for the first time.
The contest to replace disgraced Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned in a sexting scandal, had become too close to call, with public opinion polling showing a slight edge for Turner, a retired media executive with no previous political experience.
Polls closed at 9 p.m., and results trickled in slowly. With more than 30 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Turner held a slight lead over Weprin.
Towards the end of her report, there's a Fouhy paragraph which almost seems to be written to keep her own spirits up in full realization that she would soon have to face the inevitable:
On Tuesday, Weprin said the polished Democratic machinery would get people to the polls.
Note how what Weprin "said" is not in quotes. I think "polished" is Beth Fouhy's own word -- a last-ditch attempt to say "I know those Democratic votes are out there. I just know it."
Too bad, so sad, Beth.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
