AP dumps voter ... and it isn't Whitlock

OK, one more time ...

 

Look, I agree that since it is his job he needs to do it well. I guess I would just expect a more measured response ... you know, one fitting the damage done, which in this case was none. The reason I said it's not that big a deal is that nobody died, was libeled or anything of that nature and if the AP thinks this truly hurts the integrity of their poll, I guess they just happen to have a higher opinion of their poll than just about anybody else, which I suppose is their duty.

My ultimate point -- somebody will make a bigger screw-up than this in the AP poll, probably this week, and nobody will notice or care and nobody will lose their vote. It strikes me as the AP trying to impress us all with their swift and furious anger over any small breach. Maybe it's been a widespread thing this year so they need a public hanging to get everybody's attention. No clue. Just seems like a disproportional response.

 

If this wasn't a journalism board, there might not be such a response. But the fact is, it's a collection of journalists and getting things right is a key tenet of what we do. Whether it's damaging or not, it's not professional, and that's why there's the level of response.

 

Hahahahhahaha, first instant replay officials and now AP voters. EVERYONE HATES THE SOONERS, IT IS A CONSPIRACY!!!

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT THE FIRST TIME:

Sorry, but if you don't take the job of voting in the AP poll serious enough to check a freakin' score, someone else needs to be voting.

It's OK for me to casually ask about a score, hear something erroneous and be surprised later because, well, it's just a score and who cares. But if I'm an AP voter, there is no excuse for it. I'm supposed to find out before I vote.

 

Why would you hold AP voters to a higher standard than governmental election voters?

 

The Baton Rouge paper was printing on a new press (with smaller web) for the sixth time, the first time on a Saturday night. Deadlines were different than in previous weeks (and years). There were two references to the final score of the OU-Texas Tech game in the final edition, but it's possible Kleinpeter received an early edition at his house.

Not making excuses for him; just stating some of the facts I know.

I also think if I'm Kleinpeter, I'm curious to see if Whitlock gets to continue voting if the posts about him on this thread are true.

 

My thought last night, though, was why AP ran a story.

 

Here's an interesting note about the Baton Rouge paper: they ran the same AP story that's on the first page of this thread, at least on their website, but they edited out the reference to them not having the score. It was probably a two-edged sword for them, because they missed a chance to show their readers that the competition relies upon them for the scores, but I guess in the bigger picture the B.R. folks didn't want it in their paper that they were missing a score (and I see Johnny's explanation for that, but still). Interesting edit by them.

Question to the boarrd: would you have done the same?

 

Totally understood and I'm not debating it's an error and a bad one. BUT, we all make 'em and were I fired for every error I made, I'd be on job 10,000 right now and hoping to God somebody would hire me when I made error 10,001.

 

Can't all of this be resolved by a very quick check of the score on the Internet? I mean, he didn't cast his vote the moment the LSU game ended, did he?

 

This was not an error. It was negligence. If he had done his due diligence and messed up, that's one thing. Not trying harder than asking someone in the press box for a score is quite another.