These are TEST returns. They must not be broadcast or published.
October 12, 2000 3:21 PM Subscribe
These are TEST returns. They must not be broadcast or published. Except on the web I take it? It looks like the conspiracy theorists will put Bush on top, by 4 percent. It's kind of creepy in the "Brokaw doing fake Sinatra has died news spots"
Actually, I got it from a local mailing list. I have no idea how the list member found it.
posted by mathowie at 4:57 PM on October 12, 2000
posted by mathowie at 4:57 PM on October 12, 2000
These TEST returns are AP wires that get sent out before major elections to show the newsrooms across the world what the AP results will look like.
Some companies use scripts or content management systems to publish direct AP reports... chances are ABCNEWS just misfed the content management system,...
posted by s10pen at 5:43 PM on October 12, 2000
Some companies use scripts or content management systems to publish direct AP reports... chances are ABCNEWS just misfed the content management system,...
posted by s10pen at 5:43 PM on October 12, 2000
I seem to remember something like this happening a couple of years back around election time...the fact they put mock data in the dummy election results seems like an accident waiting to happen. You would think these major news sites would wise up, or get the kinks worked out of their CMS systems by now.
And speaking of the news of Sinatra's death being greatly exaggerated...these trigger-happy news reports happened frequently for years before his death in 1998. Most major news sources and sites had the obits and tributes in the can, just waiting to fill out the details and push the sites live. This common (if somewhat distasteful) practice in traditional journalism seems to be a bit dangerous when mixed with the instant publishing capabilities Web.
For instance, MSNBC and ABC both "accidently" published premature news of Sinatra's death. MSNBC inadvertently released a memorial graphic around the same time as the Brokaw TV rehearsal incident (An apology from the network later cited a "regrettable technical error". Feh.), while ABC's affiliate Wall Of Sound site erroneously published a full obit when it was, in fact, his 82nd birthday.
(I am privy to this seemingly worthless trivia because I belonged to a mailing list of extremely livid fans at the time :-)
posted by webchick at 10:03 PM on October 12, 2000
And speaking of the news of Sinatra's death being greatly exaggerated...these trigger-happy news reports happened frequently for years before his death in 1998. Most major news sources and sites had the obits and tributes in the can, just waiting to fill out the details and push the sites live. This common (if somewhat distasteful) practice in traditional journalism seems to be a bit dangerous when mixed with the instant publishing capabilities Web.
For instance, MSNBC and ABC both "accidently" published premature news of Sinatra's death. MSNBC inadvertently released a memorial graphic around the same time as the Brokaw TV rehearsal incident (An apology from the network later cited a "regrettable technical error". Feh.), while ABC's affiliate Wall Of Sound site erroneously published a full obit when it was, in fact, his 82nd birthday.
(I am privy to this seemingly worthless trivia because I belonged to a mailing list of extremely livid fans at the time :-)
posted by webchick at 10:03 PM on October 12, 2000
1) What an ugly format.
2) There are that many fuckin' candidates for President?
posted by baylink at 6:40 AM on October 13, 2000
2) There are that many fuckin' candidates for President?
posted by baylink at 6:40 AM on October 13, 2000
Well, baylink, hopefully the news sites will format the results a bit prettier. Since the AP feed is likely mostly plain-text data, I don't see what else they could (or should) do to spice it up.
posted by daveadams at 9:14 AM on October 13, 2000
posted by daveadams at 9:14 AM on October 13, 2000
I posted a story (on my site) in 1998 when ABCNews.com accidently published that story... Someone at StarWave got fired for that mistake.
posted by tomalak at 10:36 AM on October 13, 2000
posted by tomalak at 10:36 AM on October 13, 2000
>I posted a story (on my site) in 1998 when
>ABCNews.com accidently published that story...
>Someone at StarWave got fired for that mistake.
Yes, tomalak! That's the snafu I was referring to, but I couldn't make the connection! Thanks for filling in the blank for me. :-)
A FUNNY STORY: I was actually the livid fan who notified Wall Of Sound of their Sinatra-related publishing error. I was up very early in the AM (like 4 AM EST), and noticed a reference on the mailing list I belonged to regarding the premature obit. I promptly sent an email to a guy I knew at Starwave, and he contacted the editor, who apologized profusely to me and Sinatra fans everywhere.
(I even got a Wall Of Sound T-shirt for my Good Samaritan act. :-))
posted by webchick at 12:14 PM on October 13, 2000
>ABCNews.com accidently published that story...
>Someone at StarWave got fired for that mistake.
Yes, tomalak! That's the snafu I was referring to, but I couldn't make the connection! Thanks for filling in the blank for me. :-)
A FUNNY STORY: I was actually the livid fan who notified Wall Of Sound of their Sinatra-related publishing error. I was up very early in the AM (like 4 AM EST), and noticed a reference on the mailing list I belonged to regarding the premature obit. I promptly sent an email to a guy I knew at Starwave, and he contacted the editor, who apologized profusely to me and Sinatra fans everywhere.
(I even got a Wall Of Sound T-shirt for my Good Samaritan act. :-))
posted by webchick at 12:14 PM on October 13, 2000
I hope the shirt said I cost someone their job and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.
posted by sudama at 12:45 PM on October 13, 2000
posted by sudama at 12:45 PM on October 13, 2000
>I hope the shirt said "I cost someone
>their job and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
OUCH...that's what I get for trying to be brief and not obsessively hyperlinking :-)
I was talking about a different story than the Tomalak's election poll story...it was a related itchy-trigger-finger publishing incident, this time regarding Sinatra...
Actually...the editor who sent the T-shirt was grateful that the error was called to his attention so quickly (it had just been published on the West Coast...the reason I found out about it so quickly was the mailing list). No heads rolled and no fans were harmed in yet another Internet publishing debacle.
posted by webchick at 3:40 PM on October 13, 2000
>their job and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
OUCH...that's what I get for trying to be brief and not obsessively hyperlinking :-)
I was talking about a different story than the Tomalak's election poll story...it was a related itchy-trigger-finger publishing incident, this time regarding Sinatra...
Actually...the editor who sent the T-shirt was grateful that the error was called to his attention so quickly (it had just been published on the West Coast...the reason I found out about it so quickly was the mailing list). No heads rolled and no fans were harmed in yet another Internet publishing debacle.
posted by webchick at 3:40 PM on October 13, 2000
Baylink: how's this for spice? "Run for your lives! **** got elected!"
posted by bison at 10:51 AM on October 14, 2000
posted by bison at 10:51 AM on October 14, 2000
:-)
Well, Dave; I'd have expected that maybe tabular data would be presented in a ... *tabular* fashion?
Oh, I know; they used some special "Exploder-only" tag...
posted by baylink at 8:52 PM on October 14, 2000
Well, Dave; I'd have expected that maybe tabular data would be presented in a ... *tabular* fashion?
Oh, I know; they used some special "Exploder-only" tag...
posted by baylink at 8:52 PM on October 14, 2000
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Ralph Nader, Grn 10,724,912 - 14 percent
Pat Buchanan, RP 10,890,554 - 14 percent
Harry Browne, Lib 10,765,196 - 14 percent
Damn.
I might agree with the Nader numbers (he just misses eligibility for participating in Presidential debates by 1 percentage point...so close and yet so far), but Pat Buchanan????!!! Hell no.
There's a decimal point missing somewhere.
Way to dig up the dirt matthowie!
posted by ethmar at 4:42 PM on October 12, 2000