No, Donald Trump did not “win” the New Hampshire primary as soon as the polls opened–though you might have wondered if you checked the election results page on FoxNews.com today, which briefly “called” the state for Trump–with a green winner’s check mark added right next to the candidate’s face.
The “results” put Trump in first place with 28 percent, followed by Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
Political analyst Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, noticed:
Fox calls the NH primary, for some reason. Do they know something we don’t? https://t.co/DNtiKUx64J pic.twitter.com/3sn3I9EWVK
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 9, 2016
Cook quickly clarified:
In case anybody is confused, this was obviously dummy data being mistakenly propagated to the front end. I just thought it was funny.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 9, 2016
And sure enough, Fox News says that’s exactly what happened. “During routine testing in preparation for the New Hampshire primary a malfunction occurred which briefly showed errant data on our website,” said Fox News chief digital officer Jeff Misenti, in a statement to TVNewser. “This error has been rectified. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”
That “errant data” was quickly removed, and the FoxNews.com election page now shows no results–and, so far, no winners. (In fact, Trump is listed last, as the candidates are positioned on the page in alphabetical order, with Jeb Bush first)