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Let me refresh your near-term memory.
November, 1999: CBS' Dan Rather announced FIVE HOURS before the ballot boxes closed in ALL WESTERN STATES (Pacific daylight time) that AL GORE HAD WON THE PRESIDENCY.
As a result, millions of voters took communist propaganda and just skipeed registering their votes.
Not only that, each one of the 3-letter television channels blatantly accused George Bush of "stealing the election" in Florida and all were sympathetic to the (corrupt) ruling of the Florida (un)supreme court that immediately ruled in favor of Al Gore.
I don't agree with you about the announcement in predicting the vote. Although it can be argued that it was favorable to Gore, it could also be argued that their computer projections told them the projected results.
Flawed? Yes. Heat of Battle error? Perhaps. Partisan? Unproved. Stupid? Definitely.
However, perpetrating a fraud to affect the election, perhaps knowingly, weeks ahead of the election, with malice aforethought is a whole new order of magnitude.