Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: txradioguy; MeekOneGOP; mhking; PhilDragoo; Dog; Dog Gone; hchutch; SierraWasp; Liz

Thanks, I missed this. However, it was very obvious that even FOX didn't want to call Ohio.

""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."


67 posted on 11/05/2004 5:53:29 PM PST by Grampa Dave (FNC/ABCNNBCBS & the MSM fishwraps are the Rathering Fraudcasters of America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Grampa Dave; txradioguy
Thanks for the ping here. I heard Rush when he said this on his show.

Reading it here it makes more sense what he was saying now.

FOX did call Ohio first and said that it appeared that victory was Bush's.

Thanks for posting, txradioguy .....


224 posted on 11/06/2004 5:16:04 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson