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Journo Picks Up Clinton's Spin

AP scribe renames 'superdelegates' and becomes 'messenger' for campaign: pundit

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 16, 2008 6:05 PM CDT
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(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."

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.
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)
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.
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)
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talks with reporters on her campaign plane in Pittsburgh, Saturday, March 15, 2008.
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)
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.
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 • journalism • journalist • Associated Press • political spin • superdelegates • Election 2008 • automatic delegates • terminology

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