What the media must do to fend off an election-night disaster | Hacker News Reader

What the media must do to fend off an election-night disaster

washingtonpost.com

AFAIK there is a significant (>=5%) chance that the election night totals will show a conclusive win for the incumbent, but the eventual complete tally will show the opposite. This has the potential to cause a lot of confusion in the immediate aftermath of election night. Whether there will be undemocratic moves by the incumbent or otherwise in the time between election night and the final count is obviously a matter of speculation, but given the mercurial temper of the country I worry about how the nation at large will react to such confusion.

Except for 2000 which was an anomaly, and perhaps Truman vs. Dewey, can you point to a Presidential election in modern times that suddenly flipped overnight for the other candidate? I would say there's a < 5% chance of that happening now, unless there is corruption.

Mail in ballots.

Perhaps you could do some research on the amount of time it will take to count mail in ballots and the relative difference between likelihood of mail-in voting for both parties.

Or maybe your superficial response is correct, and there is nothing exceptional about this election, and COVID-19 will no longer be a concern, tomorrow?

The article is focused on the "disaster" of the media saying the election came out one way, and the election actually turning out the other way after late or mail-in ballots are counted.

The solution the article gives, in maybe too many words, is just "don't jump the gun about who won."

There is really not much to see here.

Is that not what the modern media is incentivized for? The 24 hour news cycle and clickbait headlines. More eyeballs = more ad dollars

Archived post: https://archive.is/tqszq

What the media should do is stop their political agenda painting a picture for what they want their viewers to think.

Look at what happened in 2016. Democrats were sure they would win. And look at what happened.

But they won't learn. It's greed and agendas. I can't imagine what's going to happen as Trump challenges Biden to a debate, how that debate will go, what the media will report, and how it will be an all out media and political war until a winner is declared after election night.

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