Spence
09-04-2003, 02:19 PM
Victory! FOX News calls 2004 presidential election for Bush
August 16, 2003
FNC reporting that President Bush has defeated the yet-to-be-named Democratic nominee in the November 2, 2004 election
Washington — FOX News called the 2004 presidential election for George W. Bush today in a controversial move by the network’s “We Decide ‘04” desk. The decision by FOX to break the news has put the network far ahead of their competition on the story, as other media sources said they wouldn’t announce the winner of the election for at least another year.
The archaic practice of waiting for official precinct results before announcing the winner of an election has been abandoned in recent years by news organizations, who have found that simply calling elections based on their own desires translates into better ratings.
“Television viewers aren’t concerned with the details like complicated numbers or harsh reality,” FOX News head Roger Ailes said. “They want something clean cut. They want to know who won, who lost, who got shot today, and which black man they should be afraid of.”
As President Bush and his supporters celebrated their hard-earned victory, they knew that MSNBC or CNN might try to insist that the race is “still too close to call.”
“Waiting for the actual voters to make their actual selections is a cop-out,” FOX personality Bill O’Reilly said. “Voters are human, they make mistakes! They can’t be trusted to anything this important. The work of our experts at the ‘We Decide’ desk is completely fool-proof and incapable of error.”
The call by FOX News wasn’t surprising to media insiders, who said the development was an extension of what happened during the last Presidential election. FOX News’ 2000 election coverage was directed by George W. Bush’s cousin John Ellis, who decided to announce a Bush victory in Florida when all data pointed otherwise.
Media critics charged that the anchor who made today’s call on FOX, Barbara Bush, may be biased in her reporting.
August 16, 2003
FNC reporting that President Bush has defeated the yet-to-be-named Democratic nominee in the November 2, 2004 election
Washington — FOX News called the 2004 presidential election for George W. Bush today in a controversial move by the network’s “We Decide ‘04” desk. The decision by FOX to break the news has put the network far ahead of their competition on the story, as other media sources said they wouldn’t announce the winner of the election for at least another year.
The archaic practice of waiting for official precinct results before announcing the winner of an election has been abandoned in recent years by news organizations, who have found that simply calling elections based on their own desires translates into better ratings.
“Television viewers aren’t concerned with the details like complicated numbers or harsh reality,” FOX News head Roger Ailes said. “They want something clean cut. They want to know who won, who lost, who got shot today, and which black man they should be afraid of.”
As President Bush and his supporters celebrated their hard-earned victory, they knew that MSNBC or CNN might try to insist that the race is “still too close to call.”
“Waiting for the actual voters to make their actual selections is a cop-out,” FOX personality Bill O’Reilly said. “Voters are human, they make mistakes! They can’t be trusted to anything this important. The work of our experts at the ‘We Decide’ desk is completely fool-proof and incapable of error.”
The call by FOX News wasn’t surprising to media insiders, who said the development was an extension of what happened during the last Presidential election. FOX News’ 2000 election coverage was directed by George W. Bush’s cousin John Ellis, who decided to announce a Bush victory in Florida when all data pointed otherwise.
Media critics charged that the anchor who made today’s call on FOX, Barbara Bush, may be biased in her reporting.