Could "Dewey" Be Redone?

 
It’s great to return to The Lounge this month. Since today is Election Day, I thought I would begin with a discussion of a monumental event in election history. Today is the 62^nd anniversary of the legendary front page faux pas, “Dewey Defeats Truman,” which appeared on the first edition of the Chicago Tribune on November 2, 1948.  Incumbent President Harry S. Truman, who had been expected to lose to Republican challenger and Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential race, won the election. A delighted Truman (pictured) was photographed at Union Station in St. Louis, holding a copy of his prematurely-declared defeat. Only a few hundred copies of the paper were published before the Tribune issued a second edition that hedged from proclaiming a winner. Although a lot has changed since that time, media outlets continue to balance the desire to be first with the need to be accurate. A similar mistake (on a smaller scale) happened in 2000, but the value of those papers did not come close to that of a rare copy of the Tribune, which can fetch more than $600 from avid collectors. With the numerous methods of disseminating news in comparison to 62 years ago, is a “Dewey” do-over even possible to duplicate these days?

Comments

[anon]

Not this year.