In defense of the poor reporter who accidentally hit the publish button on the "Biden's In!" story, I've done that myself a couple of times. In this day and age of RSS feeds and real-time tweets, an error like that can make you look like you either knew something before you did, or else you just did a stupid thing.
The Washington Post published an item Monday evening to its website with the headline “Biden to launch a presidential campaign.”
But even the fast clickers were disappointed to reach a page on the Washington Post website titled “Editor’s Note” that read, “This file was inadvertently published.”
Was an embargo deal inadvertently broken in a publishing flub? It appears not.
Post congressional reporter Paul Kane, whose byline appeared on the article, was quick to tweet out the details. It seems this wasn’t news published before it was ready—just a “shell” story prepared so that the Post could push the button faster in case Biden did announce.
“Earlier tonight, a technical glitch caused publication of a just-in-case/when-we-kno story of VP running for president,” he told his 10,000 followers on Twitter. “It happened when editors were embedding video file. It carries my byline. I regret that it was published accidentally. Deep apologies.”
The Biden speculation has been almost unbearable this week. It is as though the DC shark pool press cannot stand it another moment. Is he in? Is he out? Will he split Dems? What will Joe Biden do?
I see no reason for Biden to give up his place as beloved Uncle Joe to get into a bruising fight where the two major candidates duking it out are left and leftier. Other than spending more money in a primary and trying to marginalize Bernie Sanders, there's no good reason for Biden to jump in and a thousand reasons why he shouldn't.
But that isn't stopping the speculators. Does this country have a gambling addiction or something?
