CNET’s got screen shots of a few advance stories the L.A. Times had prepared pending the announcement of Obama’s VP. Is it really their ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ moment? Not quite.

First off, journalists have to do this stuff. It’s not fun, believe me. I remember a few years ago, a bunch of AP’s prepared obituaries got out. That’s just a fact of life in journalism. They’re not making things up, as one commenter in the CNET article suggested. They’re preparing — after all, wasn’t the Obama campaign being all coy for a while? Nobody was sure, so as you would expect your local newspaper to do, they were covering all their bases.

Their only boo boo was putting the stories on a server that was accessible by the public. That happens. Just be glad the stories weren’t slugged (named, in news speak) goofy names, like Obama.Chooses.OldGuy or Obama.VP.BallBuster. Yeah, that’s happened, but not exactly like that.