The Associated Press has been lambasted Tuesday for publishing an article declaring Hillary Clinton to be “the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.”
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Corporate Media, Superdelegates Fuel Clinton’s Undemocratic Win
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, or FAIR, argues the timing of the article, published Monday on the eve of the six U.S primaries, confuses “poll-based speculation with the actual electoral results.”
The AP article prematurely announced Clinton as the winner after polling unelected superdelegates, who will not vote until the Democratic National Convention July 25.
As FAIR points out, superdelegates “can declare their intention to vote for one candidate or another, just as voters can tell pollsters who they intend to vote for before Election Day, but like voters they can (and do) change their mind at any time before the actual voting.”
Over 800 delegates are up for grabs in Tuesday’s primaries, making it the second-biggest day in the Democratic primary calendar.
By declaring Clinton the Democratic nominee, AP preempts “the democratic process by telling voters their votes don’t matter,” reports FAIR.