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Posted on 07/29/2004 5:19:12 PM PDT by Gang of Five
As I wrote above, the only thing that I see wrong with it is that it probably was an embargoed story and should not have been published until after the fact, but Yahoo! posted it too soon.
That way, if something happened (he had a heart attack, etc.) the article could be pulled, revised and re-sent.
My reaction would be different if the reporter pretended to describe audience report.
As someone else wrote above, the purpose of these reports is to give instant reporting to AP's subscribers, so that they don't have to have their own reporters at the convention, or, if at the convention, covering the same news events.
Yes, it is journalistic SOP. The New York Times has a "morgue" of obituaries ready to publish when anyone whom they deem of note dies. Same thing.
No they didn't.
They report as if it had already happened,
No they didn't.
as if they heard the words,
They had heard the words, or read them, to be precise. The speech was released to the news media hours before, which is standard procedure.
and the crowd reaction,
No they didn't.
and saw the images, and so on.
No they didn't. I suggest you read the article again. Every word was crafted by the writer to make it quite clear that the information about the speech was separate from the descriptions of prior activity at the convention.
BluegrassScholar was correct. This article was written to be used by newspapers with early deadlines, and later versions of the same article are on the wires right now that contain references to actual reaction to Kerry's actual delivery of the speech. Several more rewrites will be sent out with updated information as the evening progresses. This practice has been around longer than even the oldest Freeper has been alive, and predates by many decades the morphing of the news media into the partisan media.
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