Boston Globe Posts Election 'Results' Eight Hours Before Polls Close… and Coakley Wins!

Is this the Boston Globe‘s “Dewey Defeats Truman” moment? (See Big Journalism’s header, above, for the memorable Chicago Tribune goof.)

The Hub’s ultra-liberal broadsheet today “inadvertently” posted an interactive election-results dummy on its website, boston.com — which, amazingly, forecast a Coakley victory.

Queried by the Boston Phoenix, the city’s alternative newspaper, a spokesman for the Globe replied:

AP was testing an election data feed to its Massachusetts clients. During corresponding tests at our end, the feed of AP’s hypothetical test data was inadvertently posted for a few minutes on a single subsection page within our site. As soon as the error was discovered, it was removed. We regret the mishap.

Take a look at the “mishap” for yourself from these screen shots.

The polls close tonight at 8 o’clock.