Were it not for FOX News would Gore be President?

[spooked]

I was surprised yesterday while watching the Moore film of the role that FOX news played in being the only network to "call" Florida, and therefore calling the election for Bush.

Somehow I missed Fox's role in getting the other networks to change their call for Gore as the projected winner of Florida, as well as the fact that Bush's cousin was contracted to head the "decision desk" on election night.

So, does this mean that were it not for FOX News, Gore would be President?!

http://mediastudy.com/articles/jellis.html

"The story began on election night at 2:16 AM. Fox News projected George W. Bush as winner of the Florida primary and the Presidential election. In a classic case of pack journalism that college professors will no doubt cite for years to come, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN all followed Fox’s lead during the next four minutes, calling the election for Bush.

The telling part of this story is that the call was made by John Ellis, a freelance political advisor contracted by Fox News to head their election night "decision desk." Ellis is also first cousin to George W. Bush and Florida governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush...

During the election, Ellis took to the editorial pages of The Globe, defending George W. against charges of cocaine abuse, writing that he personally knew Bush was not a "cocaine addict" since he has been close with his cousin for a very long time. Hence it was not surprise, recently, when Ellis proclaimed, "I am loyal to my cousin.... I put that loyalty ahead of my loyalty to anyone else."

By calling the election for his cousin when he did, Ellis proved instrumental in turning Bush’s loss in the popular vote into an apparently righteous struggle to gain the presidency. With a constitutional crisis looming on the horizon, pundits called for Gore, and not Bush, to be a "patriot" and concede. In a fair count, without shenanigans or election irregularities, the Miami Herald estimated Gore would have won Florida by 23,000 votes. The Bush strategy all along was to prevent a recount and run out the clock — which he succeeded in doing, eventually winning the state and the presidency by a few hundred votes. THE STRATEGY ONLY WORKED BECAUSE ELLIS CORONATED HIM THE WINNER.

Weeks later, Ellis’ former colleague, Bill Kovach, while defending Ellis’ integrity as a journalist, reported that ELLIS HAD BEEN IN TELEPHONE CONTACT WITH BOTH JEB AND GEORGE W. BUSH ON ELECTION NIGHT prior to his making the election call. Even Kovach admitted this was improper."

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

1. No, if the rest of media weren't such pee-holes,

and if Gore's people came out swinging, then Gore would have been president.

Oh yeah, then there's the whole SCOTUS thing.

I'd like Faux to take the blame, but that would be giving them too much credit.

[LSdemocrat]

2. That call created the perception that Bush had won

and also that Gore was a sore loser trying to steal the election.

[MUSTANG_2004]

8. Perception? How about vote counts?

If Gore's vote count had put him ahead by a slim margin, he would have looked like a winner, regardless of how any media had called it the night before.

[LSdemocrat]

10. People went to bed when networks declared that Bush won Florida

The correct thing would have been to keep it at "Too Close to Call", and therefore not creating that perception that Bush had "already" won, which hurt him in the public eye.

[linazelle]

3. Guess what else happened at 2AM that night right before that FOX call...

Two memory cards were uploaded from Volusia Couny's precinct 216, the second one was loaded sometime close to 2am in the morning. It automatically replaced the first card's results and reduced Gore's total by 16,022 votes and added votes to Bush plus a variety of minor candidates.

Hmmmmmm.

[spooked]

4. Wow, I had to check a source on that...

The Diebold Memos' Smoking Gun
Volusia County Memos Disclose Election 2000 Vote Fraud

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm

UNREAL!

[Nlighten1]

5. Something missing here.

Some of the other networks had already called the election for Gore. I think it was NBC and ABC and "then" FOX called it for Bush. So the other two networks had to go and "apologize" for going off script.

[lpbk2713]

6. I hope that Katherine Harris burns in Hell.

(It just seems like a good time and place to insert this)

Now I feel better.

[TexasSissy]

7. Yes. I think it was rigged so tightly by that pt. The S.Ct. was on

standby. If Gore hadn't appealed to the courts, * would have. And Katherine Harris was in charge of the COUNTING aspect. And Jeb was in the wings, doing what he could.

It was rigged to the hilt. Fox apparently played a part, which I hadn't known. But there was a backup, and a backup to the backup, and so on and so forth.

Crooked. Crooked. Crooked.

[spooked]

9. Ok, NOW let's figure out how they'll try to do it THIS time!

I keep hearing Repugs say that Democrats can't take California for granted. Is this why they've installed Mr. "Total Recall" as Governor?