Appeals Court Overrules TRO, But Josephine Already Hit Publish
In a bold act of preemptive journalism, Josephine Harvey hit “Publish” on her now-infamous article about a federal judge blocking Trump’s National Guard plan while the appeals court was still booting up Zoom.
That’s right. The story was on HuffPost’s homepage before the legal reversal was even fully typed — a victory for speed, if not for honesty.
“I report what should be true,” Harvey clarified in a follow-up tweet, “not what boring old judges later decide.”
Critics suggested retracting the piece. Harvey responded by adding a tiny disclaimer at the bottom that read:
“UPDATE: Nothing of significance occurred after initial publication. This is a safe space for pre-reversal readers.”
This bold act of journalistic clairvoyance has now earned Harvey a prestigious nomination for the “Narrative Acceleration Award,” previously held by that one guy on MSNBC who predicted Mueller would personally arrest Trump on Christmas Eve.
The American Journalism Review declared her tactic “revolutionary.” The Federalist Society called it “performance art with legal casualties.”
Either way, Harvey has reshaped the editorial process:
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Pick a side.
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Write the headline.
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Forget what happens after.
Who needs facts when you’ve got engagement metrics and a thesaurus full of verbs like “eviscerates” and “obliterates”?