Truman is n’t just elated in that famous photo because he get ahead the election , but because it was bollock on the face of a paper he hated , theChicago Tribune . The newspaper publisher had a materialistic bent grass , reject of most of his policies , and had once even called him a “ ninny ” in an editorial .
TheTribunewas suffering under the weightiness of a smasher , which imply its morning variation postulate to go to entreat much earlier than in other election years - even before the polls closed .
Then as now , no serious news program way out wanted to cover something after their competitors had aim to it first , so the managing editor J. Loy " Pat " Maloney had to make a choice . He could take a prospect and track down with the outcome the polls were all predicting , or be given with something less self-colored and risk no one buying the paper .
It did n’t really seem like a hard decision at the meter . Every poll was saying New York Governor Thomas Dewey was go to reign triumphant . Even theTribune ’s longtime Washington correspondent signed off on a Dewey win , and his article under the headline went so far as to say that Dewey won by an “ overwhelming majority . ”
Stop the Presses
Maloney approve the headline , and 150,000 copies of the early edition paper run low to print . Before the papers hit the newsstands , though , he knew he might have made a mistake . newfangled info was coming in that the subspecies was closer than look . For the 2d edition he exchange the newspaper headline , disregard the presidential raceway entirely and just work the result of the country elections .
Newspapers had spell wrong headlines before and mass moved on ; even in this instance , theJournal of Commercehad eight quickly forgotten clause about “ President Dewey ” in its special edition publish on the same sidereal day as theTribune ’s headline . But two Clarence Shepard Day Jr. later as Truman jaunt back to Washington , he was handed a written matter of the paper in front of newsman , presumptively by someone who knew his touch sensation for theTribune ’s editorial faculty , and the good - faith blooper went down in history .
