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Posted on 11/05/2004 5:21:37 PM PST by txradioguy
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
I want to apologize to those of you in this audience. I missed something crucial yesterday. I have an -- it's not an excuse. I have a reason. The reason I missed it is that I don't read the New York Times and nobody on my staff reads the New York Times. And so nobody saw it. But it was a big story. Huge story. I'm going to take you back to late Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning. You're watching TV and you see New Mexico out there, and when it comes to Ohio, only Fox and NBC called Ohio. The rest didn't all night long. No call in Iowa, no call in New Mexico, no network would make a call that would put Bush over 269 electoral votes. CNN had it stuck at 254 to 252. C-SPAN had it 254 to 252. We had NBC and Fox at 269 and other than nobody would make a call that would end this. Here's why. And it was in the New York Times yesterday in a story by Jodi Wilgoren, and the headline: At Finish Line, a Bit Late, Kerry Bows to Cold Numbers.
"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. Once Mr. Kerry woke up, he and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, asked myriad questions in a series of conference calls with the staff. Mr. Edwards, aides said, wanted to soldier on." But Kerry knew the gig was up. So the reason there were no calls after Fox and NBC was that Howard Wolfson -- well, Mark Mellman called all the networks and asked them not to. And as dutiful slaves to the Democratic party, CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC and whoever else did not make the call. MSNBC did not while NBC did. CNN, ABC, and CBS, and no other network by the way made any other calls. Fox and NBC called Florida, but that still didn't get Bush over 269.
Then later on in the evening, on CBS, about 5 o'clock in the morning, Lesley Stahl was all upset because she said, "This shouldn't happen this way. There shouldn't be anybody assuming Bush wins until we at the networks make the call, and then the candidates concede and accept." And even Rather, when she said that, even he looked like, "What are you talking about? You don't give this up. You don't tell people this is the way this operates." She was giving up all the trade secrets. The networks determine who wins by when they call what states for who. Rather couldn't believe what he was hearing. So he had to act like she was an idiot. So basically, that's why you all stayed up longer than you needed to is because the Kerry campaign had no intention of conceding, and without that, the networks weren't going to call it. Plus the networks were called by the Kerry campaign. The Kerry campaign told them not to call Ohio, and they dutifully said, "Okay, we won't call Ohio."
We'll take a brief break, ladies and gentlemen, and I am sorry I didn't have this for you yesterday. This is yesterday's newspaper. What's interesting, the New York Times reports this as, "So? Big deal?" This is huge. In any other news, this would be a huge story. Networks Accede to Demand from Kerry Campaign, should be the headline. But here it's just part and parcel of Kerry bowing to cold numbers, finish line a bit late, and they just report this as though it's common, ordinary, everyday occurrence with the Kerry campaign or any Democratic campaign and themselves. The real decision desk was at Kerry headquarters, there was no decision desk at -- well, the NBC and Fox decision desks ignored it. Fox went first. Fox didn't pay any attention. They made the call, and it was after they made the call that the Kerry boiler room went into panic. And then NBC made the call, but that still didn't put him over 270, or at 270. They kept him at 269. So, yeah, the decision desk for the networks was actually Howard Wolfson and Mark Mellman at the Kerry campaign.
END TRANSCRIPT
ping!
Wow, I did miss that. Thanks
Who called Fox and told them not to call NV and NM? I think Ailes had ordered that no matter what, Fox was not going to be the first to call it for Bush. Therefore Fox had to look like idiots until Kerry/MSM decided finally to cave in the next day.
Fark the Animal Farm Gang!
MSM media bias ping!
Definitely worth a Bttt.
why do we sit back and take this?? we dont need them, and we need to make them SUFFER!!!
The MSM deserves the death penalty. Out of business. Bye.
This needs to get as wide a distribution as possible. When any thinking person reads this, the networks will lose whatever shreds of credibility they still have and will lose the power to steer people like they are trying to do, but have no right to do. Still, some kudos to NBC for having at least some small ones not in JFK's pocket. (Even more so than Fox, who had already made the call by that time.)
...So the reason there were no calls after Fox and NBC was that Howard Wolfson -- well, Mark Mellman called all the networks and asked them not to. And as dutiful slaves to the Democratic party, CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC and whoever else did not make the call...
"The MSM deserves the death penalty. Out of business. Bye."
The funny thing is that I've been lurking in the shadows at DU and they are saying the EXACT same thing about the MSM. Only they think the MSM was helping W! LOL!
Also...did anyone notice that the MSM FINALLY called Iowa for PRes. Bush about 1330 this afternon?
Reading the thread I was flabbergasted to learn that so many Freepers really thought it mattered whether or not the the MSM "made the call." Simply amazing that they focused on the MSM instead of the actual vote counts.
As long as a market exists for the MSM point of view, they will exist in a capitalist economy. So be it.
ping!
Quite a contrast with Rather's eagerness to call Florida for Gore before the polls closed in the Panhandle. If there is anyone left who doesn't believe the networks are rabid Democrat supporters they must have sawdust between their ears.
I heard bits and pieces of this on Rush's show over the past two days. Thanks so much for posting this here so FReepers who can't tune into Rush's show during the day can be aware of it.
*PING*
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