It is every journalist’s nightmare. May the media gods spare TPM.
But the New York Times on Tuesday accidentally published an unedited version of a story about the Senate’s vote on the Keystone pipeline at about 4:40 p.m. ET — or about an hour before the vote was scheduled to take place.
The Time’s politics account tweeted out the link, which soon brought good-natured japing from other reporters. If nothing else, it provided readers with a brief glimpse behind the curtain of how the news stories they read get made.
The article was filled with journalistic jargon, like “TK” for vote tallies to be filled in and “B Matter” for the already established backstory. Two versions had been written — one for if the bill failed, the other if it passed. The story has since been fixed, but the screenshots live forever.
D.C. reporters were, as they say, on it.
At The New York Times, TK
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) November 18, 2014
Let the journo who has never TK’d cast the first TK
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) November 18, 2014
“TK,” said President Obama, in an exclusive interview with me.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) November 18, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Senate TK, by a vote of TK to TK, a bill that would TK on TK.
It was a TK moment for the chamber, said TK. Who added TK.
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) November 18, 2014
(If you want an explanation for how it happened, a Times editor laid it out to Politico).
