Media election suppression? Early election-call hypocrisy in Iowa threatens democracy

For an industry that professes to value election integrity, many media outlets are certainly presenting it in interesting ways.

Indeed, given their response to this week's Iowa Republican caucuses, one can't help but wonder which side these people are on when it comes to the debate over democracy.

CNN, The Associated Press, NBC and others declared former President Donald Trump the winner in Iowa last Monday, just minutes after the official start of the caucuses. CNN predicted a Trump victory at 7:29 p.m. CT, announcing the announcement from Iowa voting centers even as Iowa Republicans were visibly preparing to vote. It was broadcast. A minute later, the Associated Press called Trump's caucus. Ten minutes later, NBC did the same.

The caucus officially began at 7 p.m. Central Time. Before a vote is taken, several speeches are typically made on behalf of the candidates to the assembled caucus participants.

Reporters and activists alike in the Hawkeye State were surprised by the timing of the media's predictions, with some reporting that voting had not yet begun in some precincts when they learned on cellphones that Trump was predicted to win.

“The caucus I'm attending hasn't even started speaking, and they're already calling on states to support Donald Trump.'' Ben Jacobs This was said after a call with The Associated Press and CNN.

After NBC declared Trump the winner, Patricia Murphy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said: No one in Boone has even voted yet. Why would they stay there if they saw this? ”

“They've already called a winner, so we're still waiting?” the Trump campaign chief said. washington post. “That's kind of ridiculous.”

What's even more ridiculous is that you can do something like this: Turn on CNN or NBC anytime, AP home page, you'll see no shortage of content worrying about attacks on election integrity. There is no shortage of commentaries that worry that “our core democracy” will not last., If voters begin to doubt the fairness and integrity of their elections.

You know what really undermines confidence in the legitimacy of our elections? Calling races before voters have cast their votes.

Yes, Trump was always going to win Iowa. It's always going to be a big blowout. No one in this campaign will dispute this. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that certain things, such as overly early predictions, involve predictions made before votes are cast. — sow seeds arouse suspicion. What happened in Iowa is exactly the kind of thing that makes voters wonder if a fix was in place before it all started.

“Did my neighbor jump out of line after the race was declared?” What would have happened if the neighbor had been in line? How many quit after being called? Would things have been different if the network had waited?”

Such questions should never have to be asked because of the media's irresponsible behavior.

And this is not to mention how competing primary campaigns were robbed of the opportunity to put on a big show fighting for second place and leverage that success into potential future primaries. there is no.

“Very early results show Trump won by a landslide, but early network calls are a bit questionable,” Semaphore said. Dave Weigel said. “People are still in the caucus halls, they're still holding phones. How many people are going to look at their phones and bail?”

That's a fair question. Speaking of questions, why did the Associated Press and NBC ignore clearly stated policies regarding racial invocations?

AP rule book The organization specifically states that it “will not determine the winner of a race before all voting in a jurisdiction is scheduled to close.” NBC “We will not predict the winner of a race until the last scheduled voting deadline in the state.”

Perhaps these seemingly clear rules are open to alternative interpretations, but who is this good for? Not the voters? network? perhaps. congratulations. You've successfully completed a one-minute “scoop.” All it took was faith in the election.

The Associated Press declared “Trump the winner of the Iowa caucuses, based on an analysis of early election results and AP VoteCast results of voters who scheduled to caucus Monday night.” He explains. Both showed Trump holding a commanding lead. ” This is not enough to explain the deviation from AP's own rules.

“The caucuses started at 7 o'clock CST and the race was called by 7:30. You could pedantically argue that 7 o'clock was the 'voting cut-off time,'” the data journalist said. Nate Silver. “But if you've ever covered a caucus, you know that it takes over an hour because there are speeches. Most people weren't voting. That's clearly a violation of the spirit of the policy.” ”

Exactly this kind of behavior clearly violates the spirit of the policy and makes people question whether their votes are being counted honestly. If you do this to him, the next thing you know, that same man will be storming the Capitol and demanding the vice president's head.

If you care about things like election integrity and public order, then act like that.

Beckett Adams is a writer living in Washington. National Journalism Center.