http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/election2000/election_night.html
After reading the article on the 2000 election night I am in awe at how just reading about what happened that night made me feel like I was witnessing the climactic end to an action movie. There were frantic last minute phone calls, lightning fast split decisions , and Arnold Schwarzenegger jumping out of an exploding helicopter! Well maybe not that last part. In all seriousness I found it very interesting that at around 10:00 CBS stopped trying to get information from other states on who had won and instead decided to just focus on what was called "electoral math" during which they began to see that there was a possibility of a 269-269 tie in the electoral college between Gore and Bush. Around 12:00 the big confusion point began: Florida. Even now reading it more than a decade after it happened I still feel confused about exactly what happened. I feel that this ties back beautifully with our current study of media. Many new channels were completely wrong and as such were spreading false information as quickly as they could in order to be able to say that they have the first worldwide exclusive on who actually won. Because of this, incorrect word of mouth began to spread like wildfire.
Do you think the media may have affected the outcome of the election? How do we keep the media in the future from confusing the public and each other?
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