“What the networks giveth, the networks taketh away….”
Those of us who were old enough, I assume, all remember where we were when it happened.
I sure do.
Twenty-nine years old, I was at a watch party at a bar on Cincinnati’s West Side when Tom Brokaw announced that NBC was removing Florida from the map of blue states the network had projected for Vice President Al Gore. That initial (7:49 p.m.) Florida projection had created an early narrative that Texas Governor Bush was in big trouble.
So the switch at 10:17 p.m. came as a stunner. Florida was now “too close to call,” neither blue nor red.
Hours passed, with Brokaw and the affable Tim Russert engaged in ongoing analysis as more Florida votes trickled in, along with other states. And as each state was called, it became clear that Florida would determine it all.
Then, at 2:18 a.m., Brokaw jumped in to announce Bush “has won the state of Florida.” The Texas Governor would be President, NBC and all the other networks announced. Gore made his concession call.
But the vote margin narrowed over the ensuing hour, raising the certainty of a recount. And Al Gore called Bush back to withdraw his concession.
Then at 4:00 a.m., a sheepish Brokaw announced yet another changed projection. This time, they tooketh away from Bush.
“Florida is too close to call.” The Sunshine State was no longer red. And Russert confirmed—whoever wins Florida will become President.
As he signed off an hour later, with no winner to declare, Brokaw said: “It is not over, Ladies and Gentlemen.”
How right he was….more than he could have known when he uttered the words.
The next two Voting Rights Academy classes will examine how the nasty legal fight over those Florida votes boiled all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court to become Bush v. Gore, one of the most controversial and critiqued cases in Supreme Court history. We’ll review those fierce critiques, and the short- and long-term impact of the case and the choices made therein:
Chads, Butterfly Ballots, Brooks Brothers Riots, and Pat Buchanan
Within days of Brokaw’s comment, it became clear what a mess we had in Florida.
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