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At the risk of appearing to be the self-styled moral cowboy of the blogosphere, we’d be remiss if we didn’t take up the mallet and play one more round of whack-a-mole as bloggers continue to post early exit poll results, this time from Wisconsin. Today’s journalistic outlaws are our friends at the Drudge Report and Wonkette (who, oddly enough, don’t appear to have the same numbers). Former (reformed?) exit poll bandit Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review just says “See Drudge” in a post on the magazine’s weblog “The Corner.”
For the original doctrine on why this isn’t a good thing, see our debate with Jack Shafer of Slate. Suffice it to say, the media — blogs included — shouldn’t be inserting themselves directly into the political process, as they may be doing by releasing these numbers.
People, have a heart — next time around, keep the numbers to yourselves, and don’t make us write another one of these silly things.
–B.K.
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