Laphamization Alert!

As Nick Schulz of Tech Central Station spotted in late August of 2004, Harper’s magazine editor Lewis Lapham “wrote about the GOP convention speeches before anyone even stepped to the podium”:

But the only “mistake” Lapham made is in revealing for all to see what has long been known by anyone who pays attention to the news: the major media routinely bring to their coverage of significant political events a predetermined storyline — you might want to call it a “Lapham”. Facts that undermine the storyline are ignored or explained away as aberrations to The Truth. For the editor of Harper’s and other establishment press figures, it really makes no difference to them what will be said at Madison Square Garden because the Laphams are already set, loaded in the scribblers’ word processors and television anchor tele-prompters and ready to go.

Or maybe these days it’s best known as Ifillization, but New York magazine also jumps the gun a bit on the results of the election, just as multiple members of Lapham’s Blue Media did in 2004.