Twelve years ago, I did the same thing the AP did tonight. Here's why.

The AP has declared Hillary Clinton has secured the delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

Back in 2004, bloggers like me caught a lot of flak from establishment journalists when we released early versions of exit polls--both in primaries and general elections--before the polls closed.

The argument against releasing the early exits is basically the same one you are seeing tonight against the Associated Press announcing that Hillary Clinton has secured enough delegates to win the nomination. That is, the release of such information goes beyond reporting on elections and reaches the point of altering the elections--mainly by supposedly reducing turnout.

I reject those arguments now just as I rejected them when they were leveled against me and my cohorts twelve years ago.

Such arguments presuppose an infantile, plebian news audience of sheeple who need information hidden from them in order to make properly make decisions for themselves.

We aren't better than our audiences, and should not be in the business of hiding information from them. If we can handle the information and still act normally the next day, so can they. Let's not look down our noses at them, or hide things from them the way we might do to children.