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- NEW YORK, (Reuters) - ABC News had to make an embarrassing apology to
its web-site readers Tuesday after an election-eve goof that saw erroneous
poll results posted before anyone had even voted. ``Last night, during
testing of the site (abcnews.com), we inadvertently posted results and
erroneous predictions on the outcomes of the political races,'' a note
on the site said Tuesday morning. ``There was no bias intended by what
we posted and the predictions do not reflect the reporting or news judgment
of ABC News. ``We sincerely apologize to all our readers for any confusion.
We are taking steps to ensure similar mistakes do not happen in the future,''
the note said. ABC News spokeswoman Michelle Bergman later said there would
be no further explanation or comment about the goof, which occurred as
voters all over America were preparing to vote Tuesday in congressional
and gubernatorial elections. She said she had not seen the page, but believed
the erroneous information had been posted for a couple of hours. ``When
the contents were pointed out, it was changed immediately'' she told Reuters.
She declined to say whether the person responsible for the error had been
disciplined, repeating only that efforts were being made to make sure it
did not happen again.
____
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-
- Note - Please run, don't walk, to your
nearest bookstore, or go to amazon.com, etc., and obtain a copy of VOTESCAM
by James Collier. This is arguably the most important book ever written
on the American 'democratic' process of 'electing' politicians.
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- ABCNEWS.COM ALREADY COUNTING VOTES!
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- ABC NEWS was hit with the biggest online
nightmare of the Internet Era when complete election results were somehow
displayed on its World Wide Website -- hours before the first vote was
even taken!
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- A spokesman for ABC NEWS was still not
available for comment late Monday night.
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- The "results" were pulled off
the Internet immediately after the DRUDGE REPORT issued its first Bulletin
Monday evening. However, the election returns were available on the ABC
NEWS website for hours on Monday and word reached campaign offices throughout
the nation.
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- ABC NEWS had complete results for every
governorship, House and Senate race on its website. And results appeared
to give most close contests to Democrats.
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- ABC NEWS showed former California Congressman
Bob Dornan losing by a 2-1 margin in his rematch against Democrat Loretta
Sanchez, for example.
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- In the tight-tight Maryland Governor's
race, ABC NEWS showed the Republican losing by 4 points.
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- CANDIDATE VOTE TOTAL PERCENT
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- GLENDENING (DEM) * 365773 52% WIN
- SAUERBREY (REP) 342606 48%
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- % of precincts reporting: 100
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- There were HUNDREDS of race results displayed
on the ABCNEWS.COM website.
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- The numbers are being mirrored at:
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- http://www.drudgereport.com/abc1.htm
http://www.drudgereport.com/abc2.htm http://www.drudgereport.com/abc3.htm
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- ABC issued a statement late Monday:
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- "Earlier tonight, during testing
of the ABCNEWS.COM site, we inadvertently posted results and erroneous
predictions on the outcomes of races. There was no bias intended by what
we posted and the predictions do not reflect the reporting or news judgment
of ABC NEWS."
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- [Bob Dornan losing by a 2-1 margin?]
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- "We sincerely apologize to all of
our readers for any confusion. We are taking steps to ensure similar mistakes
do not happen in the future."
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- According to ABC NEWS' website: Grey
Davis is the new governor of California with 2,136,058 [49%] over Lungren
1,982,820 [46%]! Senator Barbara Boxer has received 2,155,456 [50%] over
Matt Fong's 1,916,746 [45%] and Boxer has been elected to another term
in the U.S. Senate
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- Fitzgerald has easily won over Moseley-Braun
in Illinois! [57%/42%]!
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- And Al D'Amato has beat Schumer in New
York City! 1,765,114 50%/1,475,697 42%!
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- And ABC is reporting all of this -- and
hundreds of other returns -- EVEN BEFORE THE FIRST VOTE HAS BEEN TAKEN!
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- In what will clearly go down as the one
of the biggest Internet mistakes of all time -- ABC NEWS has suddenly started
to report Election Day results -- before Election Day.
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- A spokesman for ABC NEWS was not immediately
available for comment.
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- The DRUDGE REPORT found the Election
'98 results at:
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- http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/elections98/results/senate.html
http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/elections98/results/governors.html http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/elections98/results/issues.html
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- The ABC numbers are being mirrored at:
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- http://www.drudgereport.com/abc1.htm http://www.drudgereport.com/abc2.htm http://www.drudgereport.com/abc3.htm
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- "I can't believe that ABC has done
this!" declared a horrified senior staffer in Matt Fong's senate campaign
office late Monday night.
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- "Do they really hate republicans
that much that they would fake the results and put them on their website!
They should be sued by everyone they already show losing!"
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- The charges are explosive!
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- It is not clear what ABC NEWS hoped to
achieve by releasing "Election Results" on the Internet a day
before the election.
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- One ABC NEWS source in Washington, who
demanded anonymity, was completely floored when showed the website returns:
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- "This looks very serious. I'm calling
[ABC NEWS President David] Westin."
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- Developing...
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- _________________
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- From CNET www.news.com By Janet Kornblum
and Kurt Oeler Staff Writers - CNET News.com 11-2-98
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- Thanks to an embarrassing snafu, voters
across the country could have learned who won the election--before the
votes were ever cast.
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- ABCNews.com mistakenly posted "complete"
election results this evening while preparing for tomorrow's reportage,
though the news organization does not appear to have linked to them directly
from its front door.
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- The areas where dummy results could be
seen were first reported in the Net's controversial Drudge Report, which
has mirrored the pages in question. The pages also were available to people
on the open Web.
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- An ABC spokesperson confirmed the posting
was in error, and was caused when the organization tested out its election
pages. ABC promptly hid the pages and posted the following statement: "Earlier
tonight, during testing of the site, we inadvertently posted results and
erroneous predictions on the outcomes of races. There was no bias intended
by what we posted and the predictions do not reflect the reporting or news
judgment of ABCNews. We are taking steps to ensure similar mistakes do
not happen in the future."
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- The results were there for anyone who
had the correct URL. But it wasn't clear how easily one could have obtained
it. Web sites often post beta versions of larger pages and sections to
test them, but don't link to them--or at least hide the URLs--so visitors
don't accidentally happen upon them.
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- In this case, however, it appears that
the fake results were posted on ABCNews.com's main election results page.
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- ABCNews.com has a content sharing agreement
with CNET News.com for technology news.
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