Storybook Stunner? Indianapolis Star Prematurely Calls Butler Champ

Some poor sports editor in Indianapolis isn’t just bummed that his or her local team Butler University came up a tad short last night. He or she is also probably not eager to field a bunch of questions today about prematurely publishing a story on IndyStar.com that claimed that Butler had actually won the national championship. (Oh by the way, Butler lost to Duke.) In other news, “Dewey Defeats Truman!” jokes will be a trending topic in the coming hours.

What’s worse than prematurely publishing a story that gets the story wrong? Reading about it before watching the final seconds, as commenter on Deadspin reports:

It was before the end of the game. I refreshed the page right before Zoubek went to the line with five or so seconds left. The screen capture I sent you is what the headline at IndyStar.com was at that point. I figured it was accurate, because my cable provider is awful and usually lags a few seconds behind what’s really going on. So I sat there expecting to witness a “storybook stunner.” Needless to say, that was not the case.

I won’t lie. With four seconds remaining, I had a post ready for publishing with the headline “Butler Defeats Duke,” in hopes of a cashing in on a mad dash of Internet users eager to see a replay of the final winning shot. Key difference? I didn’t click the “publish” button.

(Via Deadspin)

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