The "press" could have waited 24 hours

[Renew Deal]

There was no need for it tonight. They probably sat on the delegates for a few days until they could get within striking distance. I could understand calling the race a few weeks ago. But to do it less than 12 hours before polls open is damaging to the country.

I seriously think their thought process went like this:
Does Hillary have enough delegates? Yes
Will it hurt the country to announce it? Who cares
Should we make the announcement? Hell yes!

Sanders supporters should be happy. Clinton supporters might stay home. And that's good for the news.

[99th_Monkey]

1. Exactly! M$M could have waited a few more hours, and let voters vote

without putting their fingers on the scales, yet again.

[Cheese Sandwich]

2. They have to announce it once they had the info. It the timing of the announcement from the campaign

side of things that we need to look at.

The campaign and their delegates are the ones who controlled the timing of the announcement.

Any press who has this first has to announce it or the info will just go to another news service.

[Renew Deal]

5. The delegates aren't controlled by the campaign.

So if the press calls a super-delegate and they say they support someone, that is newsworthy. But the point is that polls open in 11+ hours. No need to call it now.

[Cheese Sandwich]

9. The superdelegates coordinate with the campaign.

If the press calls a superdelegate it goes to voicemail or a secretary. They decide when to return the call.

They also coordinate with the campaign about the timing.

To think otherwise seems kind of naive to me.

[Renew Deal]

11. Not necessarily

The campaign doesn't control hundreds of people. They are individuals. If they tell a reporter what they're going to do, it's on them.

[George II]

13. Do you have verification of that accusation?

[Cheese Sandwich]

14. What accusation?

[George II]

19. "campaign and their delegates are the ones who controlled the timing of the announcement"

[Cheese Sandwich]

21. Every grown adult controls the timing of their own announcements.

Superdelegates coordinate with campaigns about the timing of their endorsements.

Those are just obvious facts. If you need evidence for that I can't help you.

[anigbrowl]

30. You keep stating your opinion as fact

Just because this is the most typical situation doesn't mean it's always true. Your argument is illogical on multiple levels.

[Cheese Sandwich]

32. OK well I guess people can decide for themselves whether 20+ superdelegates all randomly

picked up the phone and called the AP on the night before the California primary to register their support for Hillary.

Or was it coordinated?

Everyone can judge for themselves what seems more like reality,

[anigbrowl]

36. There's another possibility you haven't considered

Which is that AP reporters are the ones picking up the phones to call superdelegates, and said superdelegates can see the math for themselves and go public with their commitment. I used to be a journalist, nagging people to get answers is a basic job skill.

[morningfog]

53. Hilly folk have been saying for days they have 100 delegates in the bag.

[anigbrowl]

59. ...and?

[Cheese Sandwich]

65. They screen their calls. They use voicemails and assistants. They only speak to the press when they

want to.

[anigbrowl]

67. None of which is evidence for your thesis

It struck me over dinner that it might just as easily have been the President (who is after all head of the party) that told a few superdelegates to take it over the lien this evening.

[Cheese Sandwich]

68. Wait so you think Obama was behind this, and he coordinated it completely separately from the

Clinton campaign. Now that does sound wacky.

[anigbrowl]

70. No, I don't think that

I said it was an equally likely possibility. What makes it sound wacky is offering speculation with no evidence to back it up, which is all you've been doing.

[Demsrule86]

63. AP calls them.

[Cheese Sandwich]

66. They use voicemail and secretaries to screen their calls.

Superdelegates only speak to the press when they feel like it.

[morningfog]

52. Lol. Hill shills here on du have been touting 100 supers in the bag

ready at a moments notice. Where do you think they got the info? Not from the AP.

[George II]

54. And I'm sure you can direct us to those posts by "hill shills", right?

[morningfog]

55. Are you denying that posters have claimed a hundred supers in the bag?

[George II]

56. Can direct us to those posts by "hill shills"?

[morningfog]

57. Not a denial. You can latch on to the phrase like a piglet suckling,

Doesn't change the facts.

[George II]

58. I'm certainly not going to entertain a question that was a response to my question....

You are the one who said something happened, surely you can show us where/how that happened.

Since you can't, well........

[morningfog]

61. Suck suck suck.

[okasha]

62. Links to such posts, please.

[msanthrope]

3. I think the SDs Outflanked Bernie, deliberately.nt

[Cheese Sandwich]

6. This is right. The superdelegates controlled the timing of their own annoucements,

working in concert with the Clinton campaign.

[Renew Deal]

8. You have no evidence of this

[Cheese Sandwich]

12. Evidence of what? The superdelegates control the timing of when they return phone calls to news

agencies? You need evidence of that? Don't you control the timing of your own phone calls ?

[Renew Deal]

15. "working in concert with the Clinton campaign"

[msanthrope]

10. No....in concert with the delegates. Not the campaign. I think you miss what happened. nt

[George II]

16. Not true, in fact the Clinton campaign asked dozens of SDsto hold off until tomorrow night.....

...they didn't want it to happen tonight.

[Cheese Sandwich]

17. I don't believe that.

[msanthrope]

23. You are missing the point of what happened. nt

[anigbrowl]

40. So what?

Why should we accept your evidence-free opinions as more persuasive than our own?

[Txbluedog]

4. They want ratings

I can't believe that the Hillary campaign seriously wanted this---this will depress voter turnout and could hurt key down ticket races

[Renew Deal]

7. From what I've heard, they didn't want this.

[MadBadger]

34. AP doesnt have a TV network

[Blaukraut]

18. No. It's all Hillary's doing. The Clinton Cabal controls the media, too

[MariaThinks]

20. or conversely they reported the news instead of suppressing it.

[Renew Deal]

26. We all knew the news. It was obvious.

The only way for Hillary to lose was to get shut out tomorrow.

And it's not like the press doesn't suppress news. They don't report exit polls. This is no different.

It's one thing to call it in May with a long way to go. But to call it the night before is damaging to the party and the country.

[MariaThinks]

27. but according to bernie the votes aren't counted - so how could we know she wins?

[Demsrule86]

47. Bernie was trying to win California for a reason

He said he planned to barnstorm around the country if he won to make the case to the supers...I thank God we were spared that travesty...supers shut it down. Good for them. Now Bernie has little choice but to concede.

[Renew Deal]

49. I think Obama took care of it yesterday

His campaign wasn't going anywhere after that phone call.

[Demsrule86]

60. I think that may be why the supers moved today. Three dimensional chess.

[passiveporcupine]

22. Apparently Skinner wasn't unhappy about this.

[Demsrule86]

48. How do you know that? nt

[onenote]

24. Yes. Because the progressive view of the press is that they should withhold news.

Not.

[GulfCoast66]

25. Both sides pissed at the press...

Just like the founders wanted. This sucks for both sides and both are pissed. I like it when the press pisses people off.

I especially like it when the press pisses of Trump. But I also like it when they piss off Democrats.

[Fumesucker]

28. Y'all have been whining for months about call it, call it, call it, it's over, it's over ..

Then when you get what you want you whine some more about it's tooo sooon..

Goddam, give it a fucking rest

[Renew Deal]

31. Not me

It has been effectively over since at least April and probably March. But now we are on the cusp of finishing the primary. Another 24 hours wouldn't hurt anyone. But calling it 24 hours early will.

[Fumesucker]

43. I'll be checking out before too long

I've said my piece about both Trump and Hillary and don't have anything really to add.

If I stay for too much of the grave dancing I'll end up being someone I don't wish to be, I will stay though for enough to make sure I don't want to come back for a long time.

[Orrex]

29. "Will it hurt the country to announce it?"

How, exactly, might it do that? If she has in fact reached the necessary number of delegates, then that's the truth whether some people perceive it to "hurt the country" or not.

Would you prefer that they deny it? Or that they suppress the actual, objective fact? For what possible reason?

[Renew Deal]

33. It will piss off a segment of the Democratic party.

And that hurts the country. They didn't have to deny anything. They could have waited a day. They wait on exit poll results, military activity, gossip, and they could wait on this.

[Demsrule86]

45. I don't see a way that

Hillary wins that won't piss them off. They were never willing to accept that Bernie lost...time to end this thing.

[Renew Deal]

46. I agree that is true for a lot of people.

[okasha]

64. I do wish they'd held it.

But asking a major press organization to forego breaking a story of this magnitude is like asking a pig to fly. It's not in their nature.

[Orrex]

51. How will it piss of a segment of the Democratic party?

This was going to happen at some point, and it was going to "piss off a segment of the Democratic party" regardless of which candidate secured the nomination.

As soon as the delegate threshold is reached, then all subsequent primaries are more or less academic. That's not the fault of the Clinton campaign nor of the press, but rather it's solely the responsibility of states that have freely chosen to hold their primaries later in the cycle.

If, after I voted, I were to find out that the nomination had already been secured beforehand but the press withheld that information to protect my feelings, I'd be more pissed off at the condescension than at the mathematical fact of the delegate tally.

[MadBadger]

35. The AP wanted to be first

[Retrograde]

37. I think you left out a step

I seriously think their thought process went like this:
Does Hillary have enough delegates? Yes
Will it hurt the country to announce it? Who cares
Will it boost our ratings? Yes
Should we make the announcement? Hell yes!

People who are interested in and knowledgeable about presidential politics and look at the current pledged delegate counts and, understanding that the Democrats award pledged delegates proportionately can look at polls in the states that vote tomorrow and make an educated guess as to who will go into the convention with a majority of those delegates.

A large win for Sanders in California would show the DNC that people are not happy with they way they've been leading the party, and give some impetus to making some changes. If Sanders supporters sit tomorrow out - and I hope they don't, there are other contests on the California ballot - that message is diluted.

[Demsrule86]

42. Exactly

And we would have to put up with Bernie's to the convention and beyond BS...the supers shut it down...go for them.

[Lord Magus]

38. It's not the media's job to hold back the truth "for our own good."

And how the hell dos it hurt the country to announce when somebody's won a primary?

[Demsrule86]

41. I agree

I am sick of coddling the Sanders campaign.

[Demsrule86]

39. You are looking at this the wrong way

This ends Bernie's California to the convention bullshit and sends him a message directly from the supers. The primary is over If he wins CA...why her voters had no reason to vote...if she wins CA...why look at that, the presumptive nominee is kicking ass...win win. There is nothing Bernie can do....except whine. I bet he concedes tomorrow or maybe after DC.

[NWCorona]

44. Props!

[Doctor Jack]

50. Should have at least been on a day where people were actually voting

Yesterday would have been better than today and tomorrow would have the best.

[BootinUp]

69. The Free Press reports news. Thats what they do. You are free to not read, listen, watch it. nt