Kari Lake Fumes as Arizona TV Station Posts Midterm 'Results' 12 Days Before Election
In an incident that will likely not help the fractured and contentious relationship between Americans and the establishment media, a local Fox affiliate in Phoenix appeared to have called a gubernatorial race… a whopping 12 days before the election.
KSAZ-TV, the local Fox affiliate in the Valley of the Sun, raised quite a few eyebrows when a widget displayed during the Thursday broadcast showed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs soundly beating Republican candidate Kari Lake.
🚨🚨HOLY CRAP🚨🚨
Fox10 in Phoenix—Kari Lake’s former station—just displayed a graphic showing Katie Hobbs won the Arizona governor’s race 12 DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION pic.twitter.com/2Gxq09rfo7
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 28, 2022
Here is a screen capture of the widget in question in case you didn’t catch it in the video:
Here’s a still image with a red ☑️ next to Katie Hobbs, declaring her the winner 53-47 over Kari Lake pic.twitter.com/y3r8AfyJ9q
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 28, 2022
It was a jarring sight to behold for Phoenix news watchers. Not only did Hobbs get that red checkmark denoting she won, but there were also actual vote counts displayed as well.
The widget claimed that Hobbs got 1,252,437 votes and Lake got 1,102,326. It looked like the vote had already happened and was tabulated.
Lake immediately questioned why KSAZ would do this. Of note is that Lake worked there for 22 years as an anchor.
“WOAH.. right after my press conference going after the Media,” Lake tweeted. “Retaliation?”
WOAH.. right after my press conference going after the Media. Retaliation? https://t.co/Khm5LI8b32
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 28, 2022
KSAZ, for its part, swooped in to clarify the error as an honest mistake.
The outlet claimed the appearance of the widget was an erroneous “test.” Interestingly enough, KSAZ also seemed to pass off some of the blame to The Associated Press, which it claimed had conjured up the mysterious tabulations.
At 5:50p during the Fox 10 newscast today a small graphic appeared on the lower left side of the screen showing test results for the upcoming election.
These were generated by the Associated Press which distributes results to clients. (1/2)
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) October 28, 2022
This graphic was never meant to go on air — the numbers were only part of a test. The station has taken steps to make sure this cannot happen again.
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) October 28, 2022
A KSAZ poll actually has Lake up double digits against Hobbs, further flying in the face of the incorrect widget.
Arizona Governor:
Kari Lake (R) 54% (+11)
Katie Hobbs (D) 43%.@InsiderPolling/@FOX10Phoenix, 550 LV, 10/24-24https://t.co/wJtTR0SP4q
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) October 26, 2022
This week, Lake was largely blamed by Hobbs for a break-in at the Democratic candidate’s political HQ, despite mounting evidence that the incident had absolutely nothing to do with Lake.
Midterm elections will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8. The Arizona gubernatorial race will be just one of many races decided that day.
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