Oops! The media did it again

The news media's coverage of the 2000 presidential election was and continues to be a comedy of errors and miscues.\nMSNBC's Brian Williams urged millions of Americans to wake up their children in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 8, assuring them that George W. Bush had just been elected the 43rd president of the United States. \nWe all know how that turned out.\nCBS anchor Dan Rather spewed more archaic, homespun expressions that night than Keith Jackson at a family reunion, all the while insisting that his network would not call a state for either presidential candidate until the results were more secure than Al Gore's lock box.\nCBS was one of the first networks to call Florida for Vice President Gore.\nAnd we all know how that turned out.\nOn the whole, the news media -- especially the television networks -- turned in terrible performances during what is considered the most important and sacred occasion in our democracy: Election Day.\nJournalism and politics go hand in hand, but usually the former is supposed to act as a watchdog of the latter -- not as a bumbling, hasty and inaccurate town crier.\nBut infotainment rules the airwaves, from sea to shining sea. At least the joke is not lost on Comedy Central, whose election coverage -- appropriately titled "Indecision 2000" -- was deliberately entertaining and irreverent.\nThe joke was and is on us, the audience. Williams, Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and the rest of their ilk are the jesters. "Oops, our bad," they seemed to say, collectively, after Florida went back to the "too close to call" column last Tuesday.\nWe gave them a second chance. "Yes," we said to ourselves, "herd journalism is ugly and unfortunate, and the urge to scoop the other guy is damn near irresistible. But this is the best that we have, so let's keep watching. They'll get it right next time."\nBut they didn't get it right. They got it very, very wrong. And yet we continued to watch, because it was entertaining.\nWow! The electoral process is so exciting and entertaining! Look at MSNBC's Chris Matthews barking commands at talking heads until they spout forth an appropriate sound bite! See Brian Williams wield the Telestrator pen over the Electoral College map like he was John Madden at the Super Bowl! Chuckle at Dan Rather's antiquated method of pointing at a screen with a No. 2 pencil!\nYes, the Fourth Estate has failed democracy before, and it will again, no doubt -- especially if we, the audience, fail to hold it to higher standards. \nIn the case of this particular election, there would still be plenty of angry people marching through the city streets of Florida even if the networks had been patient and not called any states based on exit polls and early returns.\nBut if the media had lived up to their time-honored mission of being safeguards against tyranny and a champion for an informed electorate, perhaps we all would have, at the very least, maintained our faith in the democratic process.\nNow that faith has been shaken. The major television networks, by calling Florida early and incorrectly, might very well have tainted this election. But we'll never know for sure.\nThe IDS, to its credit, delayed publication of its Nov. 8 front page until Gore's concession had been retracted and Bush's victory had been officially rescinded.\nBut curious voters don't call the IDS newsroom to see which candidate is ahead in what states and by how much. They watch the networks' coverage.\nABC + CBS + NBC + CNN + MSNBC = B.S.\nAnd you can take that to the bank, book it or feed it to Dan Rather's Tennessee Snapping Turtle.