M$M says Kloppenberg "edges ahead"... "has the lead"... BULL-HOCKEY... SHE WON!!!

[AmBlue]

CUT IT OUT ALREADY!! She WON! The votes have been counted. All precincts are in. Even if she's only ONE vote ahead of Prosser-- she WON, damnit!! That's what majority vote IS. Now with the Rs legal counsel saying they can still pull a rabbit out of a hat, the media feeds on this crap like cats on catnip.

Today, AFTER the race was called, I heard NPR say that Kloppenberg "has the lead" by a few hundred votes. What kind of crap is that?

See this WaPo article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/why-the-lefts-showing-in-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-is-a-big-deal/2011/03/03/AF9GUvpC_blog.html

_______________________
(story filed at 1:51pm TODAY)

Why the left’s showing in Wisconsin Supreme Court race is a big deal
By Greg Sargent

In the nationally-watched Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has edged ahead of conservative sitting justice David Prosser by just over 200 votes.

We still don’t know who is going to win, and we may not know for some time to come. But even if Kloppenburg loses, labor strategists argue, this will have constituted a victory for unions and Dems — proof of Scott Walker’s continuing toxicity, and of the staying power of the grassroots energy he unleashed. They’re right.

<snip>

Sure, GOPers will be able to crow if they win, but this is still mostly nonsense. Here’s why....

(emphasis is mine)
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In this article, the headline is the left has made a "showing," and it goes on to say we "don’t know who is going to win." Hogwash!! Now, they might be looking ahead to the recount, but that's not what they said about W in Florida in 2000. They didn't surmise, as this article does in the second paragraph, "even if (Bush) loses..." That would be heresy! What we heard was Bush WON that race and Sore/Loserman couldn't accept reality and was calling for a recount.

Please don't let this Wisconsin race be framed this way. Even Rachel tweeted the above article but didn't call them on this.

Kloppenberg WON. Prosser hasn't even called for a recall yet as far as I know; he's done some posturing through legal counsel. Let's not do the other side's bidding by accepting their frames.

[cali]

1. If it were the other way around and a couple of hundred votes separated

them, we'd be howling for a recount.

[AmBlue]

2. You're right. And we did that in 2000, Cali.

But it's the framing that is my point. It was clearly understood here in Florida-- and nationwide-- that Bush WON the vote count on election day. It was framed as his win. Not "if he loses" on the very day he won the e-day vote count.

[Pithlet]

3. And I don't doubt for a second that if it were the other way around

the media would be framing it differently. The votes are all in and the recount hasn't been called for yet. She isn't in the lead, as if votes are still coming in. That's the point.

[Bumblebee]

4. It's not official yet, since they have to turn in their tallies.

[jpljr77]

5. I think that's a bit of an overly sensitive overreaction

The truth of the matter is that she has not won. The vote tally is not official.

Secondly, no one is strongly declaring her to be the winner (except her herself, which she should do) because, 1) the unofficial tally is so incredibly close, meaning there will be a recount, which segues to 2) 2000. The 2000 election changed everything in political election reporting. Basically, nothing is final now until the loser concedes or the SCOTUS issues a ruling. Period.