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May 16, 2008 7:07:02 AM CDT

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Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin  

Posted Mar 16, 08 6:05 PM CDT in Politics    Editor's Choice

(newser) – The AP described superdelegates as "automatic delegates" in a story last night, just as the Clinton camp asked—and turned the news service into a spin "messenger," Josh Marshall writes on the Talking Points Memo blog. The campaign wants superdelegates to sound less privileged in case they nominate Clinton this summer. But a good reporter should cut through such word-wrangling, Marshall writes. Apparently unfamiliar with adages regarding pots and kettles, however, he singles out the AP's Mike Glover without giving him a chance to respond.

"I think it's a good journalistic principle not to switch terminology in the midst of an election campaign," notes Marshall. "And doing it at the behest of one party to the dispute is almost always bad practice." At least Clinton's camp isn't spinning a term as silly as past attempts—"death tax" and "personal accounts" come to mind—but the camp still failed to make "an extremely good case that the existing word choices are patently misleading."

Source Talking Points Memo

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The offending article
Associated Press | Mar 15, 08

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New York Times | Mar 16, 08

Pelosi: Superdelegates must go with voters
Bloomberg | Mar 16, 08

Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., laughs as she speaks to reporters about the Super Bowl aboard her campaign plane in Minneapolis, Minn. Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin
Supporters of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., cheer as Clinton walks past during a St. Patrick's Day Parade in Scranton, Pa., March 15, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with reporters on her campaign plane in Pittsburgh, Saturday, March 15, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell pause as they walk in the Scranton St. Patrick's Day Parade in Scranton, Pa., March 15, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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Hillary Clinton  • election 2008  • superdelegates  • journalism  • journalist  • Associated Press  • political spin  • terminology


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Related Threads: Superdelegate Watch, Clinton 2008, Election 2008, DNC Convention = War, Clinton-Obama Tussle

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