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The media becomes an activist for democracy
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Jan. 27, 2022, 12:57 p.m.
Audience & Social

This newspaper ruined everyone’s night by sending a premature push notification about the winner of Jeopardy!

“I will remember this when it’s time to renew my subscription. Goodbye.”

The answer is “All of them”?

On Wednesday evening, after a 40-game winning streak (the second-longest in the show’s history), Amy Schneider lost Jeopardy, taking home $1,382,000.

Rather: She lost on Wednesday evening East Coast time, as West Coast Jeopardy fans hastened to point out when certain East Coast–based news organizations totally ruined the surprise by sending out push notifications at 7:30 PM ET, before the episode had aired on the West Coast or even in all East Coast markets. (Jeopardy! itself would never do this.)

Little disappointments hit especially hard during a pandemic. This was not an exception. It was, perhaps, the anti-exception.

It was not just the Post.

Even local news was in on it.

Ah well, moving on, as long as nobody tries to ruin … oh no.

Laura Hazard Owen is the editor of Nieman Lab. You can reach her via email (laura@niemanlab.org) or Bluesky DM.
POSTED     Jan. 27, 2022, 12:57 p.m.
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