Posted on 11/04/2004 12:50:49 PM PST by Cableguy
[only intersting parts are this]
The critical moment came at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, when, shortly after Florida had been painted red for Mr. Bush, Fox News declared that Ohio - and, very likely, the presidency - was in Republican hands.
Howard Wolfson, a strategist, burst into the "boiler room" in Washington where the brain trust was huddled and said, "we have 30 seconds" to stop the other networks from following suit.
The campaign's pollster, Mark Mellman, and the renowned organizer Michael Whouley quickly dialed ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC - and all but the last refrained from calling the race through the night. Then Mr. Wolfson banged out a simple, two-line statement expressing confidence that Mr. Kerry would win Ohio once the remaining ballots were counted.
"What was driving our decision making was the memory of how in 2000, by allowing Florida to go for Bush, a lot of momentum was blocked," said one person who was in the room. "Our whole goal was stop the train from moving that way."
Train stopped, lawyers and strategists at the campaign's Washington headquarters prepared court papers to challenge Ohio's process for counting provisional ballots, and made spreadsheets comparing each county's provisional ballots with its margin of victory or defeat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I thought NBC called Ohio about 3-4 minutes before FOX called Ohio. Am I mistaken?
Fox said that the data from the states you mentioned weren't relible. Plus they sent the staff home 4 in the morning. You can't criticize them for that...
No, NBC called Ohio roughly 30 min after Fox.
Barone was fantastic on Tuesday night, especially after "Cruella De Estrich" came out spouting the Cayuhoga county vote would bring Bush's lead under 30K, and Barone said.."I don't see it".
Yeah but the NBC coverage after that was strange. I mean, by getting to 269 electoral votes, it meant the election was obviously over ('cause Bush would certainly win a House vote in the event of a 269-269 tie). But NBC kept going on and on for hours about how Bush needed another EV to win -- it just wasn't true.
I guess they were just trying to keep up their ratings, or they just refused to face reality.
NBC broke w/ the rest of the MSM and called Ohio for Bush shortly after FOX...notice who won the ratings battle....
NBC TOP TV AUDIENCE FOR ELECTION WRAP 10.7 RATING/15 SHARE... ABC 9.2/13... CBS 6.1/8... [CABLE RELEASED 2:30 PM ET]....
And Barone is so understated, that when he says "I don't see it", he really means "you are full of crap."
ABC, CBS, CNN: "Well, if one of Kerry's operatives "expresses his confidence", why sure, that's good enough for us."
I read this passage myself this morning on the train to work ( I broke my "no NYT" rule today for schadenfreudal reasons) and it made my blood boil.
I'm glad you posted this.. it needs to be fully exposed and amplified. Hopefully, there's many articles and books forthcoming on the disgusting performance of the left wing and the media on Election Day.
bet it as Mark Haleprin who called for the halt at ABC..
He is going to pay dearly for that.
Yes, Barone was great. FOX was great. That little ticker was awesome.
The obvious lie in the explaination is that in the previous election they called Florida while the election was still underway.
At 12:41 even Alaska had closed its polls.
What a bunch of BS!
They also refrained from calling them because, if Kerry won Ohio somehow, they were going to need the Dem Sec's of State in those states to find more ballots for Kerry.
Once Ohio was settled, they didn't need to find ballots as W had won already.
Believe me, if Kerry had taken OH, he would have somehow gotten NM and IA too.
Alaska closed at 1:00, not 12:00...
Really. When there's a hot story, MS-NBC usually covers the details....
Like when they edited out Kerry's comment about how his military records were not released when Brokaw was asking about the comparative IQ estimates derived from his and Bush's test results on tests given by the military. What did NBC do with the Swiftvets? I guess these were not hot stories. That said, I do watch MSNBC much more than any other channel after Fox. I don't watch CBS, ABC, NBC, or CNN at all, so I guess you may have a point.
Although the CNN graphics were virtually incomprehesible I was very impressed with one of its statistician's analysis of Florida on a county by county basis which allowed it to call Florida for Bush a long time before any of the others.
Politics ALWAYS been this way back to Jeffersons day
Papers took very biased sides
The big difference today is the left has a MONOPOLY
In a country where we have freedom of the press whose fault is it that the left has the monopoly
If all the conservatives would get the Wash Times wekly and quit buying the left wing rags and quit listening to the MSM they would fold over night
Bookmarked!
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