Radio station calls election a week before election day

[Kevin Vahey]

Election night 1968 at WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH.

Local elections has been decided early but the race for POTUS was too
close to call - but at 12:58 AM WMUR-TV became the first media outlet
in the US to declare Richard Nixon had won.

General Manager Sam Phillips didn't want to pay overtime.

On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 1:04 AM, A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com> wrote:
> From MASSterlist:
>
> Thinking ahead: Radio station decides it’s never too early to call election
> result
>
> An innocent mistake or an April surprise? WMYV on Martha’s Vineyard aired a
> report giving the win in the Edgartown selectmen’s race to the incumbent,
> even though the election was still more than a week away at the time, George
> Brennan reports in the Martha’s Vineyard Times. The challenger learned of
> the fake news report when co-workers offered condolences on her defeat. The
> station says the error occurred when a news copywriter was writing a
> “pre-story” on the election that wasn’t supposed to air until after the
> April 12 election.
>
> MV Times
> <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0010UTNbZ7qgphKcD9buRzjuKA3AoOBo0FCASAtPtjNxRkW2sP-i_TTM_quIpHBxeeBbVdgn0j8qTdbn8lsCKwrbT4U6sF26GRljhy5mmTp7l2oEY2tNsz_qOs6KAc5Qimverl2lyFaQ-HA3xKhvOXg1JjOiqzv0HCd0CppdvVtPOMsdJlWiCGvFnBruTypMvQRcg6pVLg7QCw-QZHQWmz7yq2QMfHeMDM6MJDCKWPuKsI-9-YskvoSUgcPC-JJNbbu&c=SNI3LBlcldICywc9FScnRXCBJjazZKoHyepS2ZunP45sBCMzgSxdhw==&ch=qNk-zrp2ecSPGHiPfuKmnyinS5ZQOLM3OfkfPtpwUPWr9JR00YrKlQ==>
>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
> 617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com