The Associated Press Gets Busted Tweeting Fake Trump vs. Clinton Electoral Map

There are a lot of ways to do clickbait, but when you’re the world’s most respected and widely-known news wire service, making stuff up should not be one of them. On Saturday, the AP Twitter account posted a tweet encouraging readers to check out its interactive 2016 electoral map:

RT: @AP_Interactive INTERACTIVE MAP: Road to 270 – What will it take to win the White House? https://t.co/JhpY6XpLuM pic.twitter.com/avYuRuo3r3

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 27, 2016

One sharp-eyed Twitter user, political writer Sarah Kendzior, noticed something amiss with the AP’s map, though:

ICYMI, last night AP tweeted an electoral map. Left: map they put in tweet. Right: actual map in article. pic.twitter.com/ZquB4LbNKS

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) August 28, 2016

As you can see, the current AP map has Hillary Clinton whipping Donald Trump badly, 269 to 191 electoral votes.

Now, in “fairness” to the AP, they could argue that they didn’t want to give away the results of their analysis in the tweet, but then they could have easily tweeted out the “blank map” that’s offered as an option on the site.

Kendzior has been tracking a series of Associated Press trends that would seem to benefit Trump, which earned her this ironically undiplomatic tweet from Associated Press diplomatic writer Matt Lee:

No. Calm down, get it together and get back to what you do best. https://t.co/hRNYSBufWh

— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) August 27, 2016

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