NEW YORK (AP) – The presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump turned into a made-for-TV thrill ride on Tuesday night – and a stern lesson to journalists to avoid leaping to conclusions.
Relying on polls, the media began the evening with a barely-concealed assumption that Clinton would win, only to see actual results reflect a true nail-biter. Tens of millions of Americans followed the drama on all manner of screens.
“It is a white-knuckles kind of night,” said Norah O’Donnell of CBS News.
The New York Times’ Upshot blog’s constantly updating meter on the chances of each candidate began by listing Clinton with an 85 percent chance of winning. Shortly after 10 p.m., it had nearly flipped completely to 79 percent in favor of Trump.
It was a far different mood while the polls were still open. Vice Media and Slate collaborated on a system that combined exit polling with early voting profiles to project candidate vote totals in seven battleground states and posted the material throughout the day on Tuesday. Clinton was leading Tuesday afternoon in all seven of the states, according to the VoteCastr model.