Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s corrupt decision to stop the counting of ballots in Florida and award the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush. Below is what I wrote for The Boston Phoenix. I think my critique of the media has held up, but I was way off on the Supreme Court, which has devolved into a serious threat to the Constitution. And, looking back, I think a lot started to go wrong with this country as a result of the court’s anti-democratic edict.
How a passive media helped Bush win
The Boston Phoenix | Dec. 14, 2000
As the Phoenix went to press on Wednesday morning, it appeared that the post-campaign was, at long last, over. But before Al Gore makes his final disappearance, it’s worth thinking about how the media helped legitimize George W. Bush’s outrageous — and ultimately successful — effort to stop all the votes from being counted and thus claim an unearned victory.
Despite the 24/7 treatment on the all-news cable channels, the Florida fiasco was not, at root, a media story. It was too big, too important, and too fast-moving for the media to be able to shape (and distort) events. That made it very different from such past spectacles as the Monica Lewinsky saga and the O.J. Simpson trial.