Two headlines, one spin.
- Fox News: JUDGMENT DAY: Trump, Clinton make late-night pitches as small New Hampshire towns kickoff voting.
- CNN: Hillary Clinton wins Dixville Notch midnight vote.
Both are true, except the CNN story ignores the whole truth to spin their truth.
Dixville Notch voted 4-4 tying Clinton…but the “against” was split between Trump (2), Gary Johnson (1) and a write-in for Mitt Romney (1).
Clinton: 4
Trump: 2
Johnson: 1
Romney: 1— Dixville Vote (@DixvilleVote) November 8, 2016
But Dixville Notch wasn’t the only community that voted at midnight. New Hampshire allows towns with populations under 100 to ask permission to open their polls at their leisure and close the polls when all registered voters have cast a ballot. In fact, three towns voted: Dixville Notch, Hart’s Location, and Millsfield.
Clinton won more votes in Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, but Trump was the overwhelming favorite in Millsfield, with a 16-4 advantage.
So the score is 32-25, Trump (56.1 to 43.9 percent).
If Fox News spun like CNN, their headline would read: “Trump takes commanding 12 point lead in N.H. first election day voting.” To their credit, they didn’t. And lest you think CNN simply filed the story before the other communities announced their totals, no–it was updated at 12:48 am, well after the results were published.
CNN buried the Hart’s Location and Millsfield results in paragraph eight. Nice. I know which network I’m not going to watch tonight.
Actually tonight, I won’t watch at all. I’m volunteering with DecisionDeskHQ. Follow their results, because they are better and faster than the AP.
