Newsweek’s editor did what any sensible magazine chief would have done by preparing an issue based on a very different US presidential result...

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

It could all have been so different. Newsweek’s editor had obviously prepared issues for both possible US presidential election results, as is normal practice in such events.

Oddly, however, this one not only got published but also got distributed. About 125,000 copies had to be recalled, reported the New York Post.

The copy above, tweeted by David Vick (many thanks), carries the cover line: “Madam President: Hillary Clinton’s historic journey to the White House.”

Think of all those wasted words resulting from Donald Trump’s victory. According to the standfirst on the right hand page, the election “was unique in a number of ways” because a female candidate faced a “the kind of demagogue previously unknown in American politics...

“President-elect Hillary Clinton ‘went high’ when her opponent and his supporters went ever lower...” and so it transpired that “on election day, Americans across the country roundly rejected the kind of fear and hate-based conservatism peddled by Donald Trump... The highest glass ceiling in the western world had finally shattered.” If only!

The real cover. Photograph: Newsweek

According to the Post, Newsweek’s production partner, Topix Media, distributed only the Clinton issue to stores in the belief that she would be the winner.

Although retailers were told not to put issues on sale prior to the election, a few copies were sold. The paper quotes Topix chief executive Tony Romando as saying: “Like everybody else, we got it wrong.

“All wholesalers and retailers have been asked to return any issues they have as we need to clear room for the President Trump issue. We expect it to sell very well as there is obviously a great demand.”

It’s a reminder of the famous occasion after the 1948 US presidential election when the Chicago Daily Tribune ran with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman”.

In fact, Harry Truman beat his Republican challenger, Thomas Dewey. A copy fell into Truman’s hands and he held it aloft, smiling at the mistake because the Republican-supporting Tribune had once referred to him as a nincompoop.

