I Covered Media’s 2000 Election Night Fiasco. Please, Let’s Not Do That Again.

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Willie Smith holds four copies of the Chicago Sun-Times, each with a different headline, Wednesday morning, Nov. 8, 2000.





CHARLES BENNETT/ASSOCIATED PRESS



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CHARLES BENNETT/ASSOCIATED PRESS



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All of this is to the good.

But President Trump has repeatedly challenged — without any basis — the integrity of voting by mail. He has repeatedly claimed — without any proof — he will only lose by fraud. So new and tough questions arise for the networks in particular: How do they cover him on election night, and in the days ahead? Will they cover his speeches live? How will they fact-check his claims? What will they do if he says things that could incite violence by his more voracious supporters?

The media is likely to be outmatched once more. And everyone — everyone — is looking over at Fox News.

«They have remarkable influence over a large portion of the American public, obviously almost exclusively Republican and heavily pro Trump, said West. «That’s something that didn’t exist in the year 2000.

He notes that Fox has had a strong track record for its performance on Election Night in recent years.

Even before the 2016 election, the network bound itself to the fortunes of President Trump. For years, it has served up elaborate discussions of unfounded conspiracy theories and claims about the president’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, and his family. That’s only become more intense in recent weeks. What Fox News does and reports will frame events for its viewers and his most loyal supporters, especially if results are close or favor Biden.


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Its coverage is to be presented Tuesday evening by figures from its news side, including political anchor Bret Baier and anchor Martha MacCallum — both of whom tend to be sympathetic to Trump but grounded in news — and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, one of the network’s most straight-ahead journalists. Its polling and decision desk operations are highly respected. Trump has expended a lot of time trashing Fox’s polls. Even when he appears on Fox News. Especially then.



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There’s no better example of that than on Election night 2012, when Republican strategist and then-Fox News pundit Karl Rove refused to believe the network’s projection that GOP nominee Mitt Romney would lose Ohio. Fox’s then-star host Megyn Kelly strode down the corridor from the studio, camera trailing her every step, to the decision desk, which calmly explained its conclusions that President Obama had won the state.

A Fox News colleague told me this week that nothing was left to chance. And Kelly confirmed for me that her televised walk — though not her confrontation with Rove — had been carefully choreographed in advance, just in case.

Back in 2000, The Sun had assigned a former international exchange fellow working in New York City, Deborah Bach, to embed with Fox’s decision desk to provide color for our reporting. Among those on Fox’s desk at the time was John Ellis — George W. Bush’s first cousin. Later that week, the New Yorker reported Ellis had been the one to make the network’s fateful Florida call for Bush.

Rob Zimmerman, then a spokesman for Fox News, pressured me to get Bach, then at just the start of her career, to participate in a conference call with reporters from other newsrooms to disabuse them of the idea that Fox had let Bush’s cousin make that kind of weighty decision.

The two problems with his idea: Bach had left just before 2 a.m., that is, before Fox projected Bush the winner, because she had had to get up early for her new job. And Ellis had boasted to her that the decision would be his to make. («That was such a crazy time, Zimmerman said Tuesday. «I have no recollection of that, which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Bach also says she is now hazy on the specifics.)

Fox’s decision to bestow Florida, and hence the elections, to Bush had a ripple effect on other networks and on how many Americans interpreted what had transpired. The way they understood it, a win had been taken away from the Republican).

It may all work smoothly this time around. The polls may hum efficiently. The candidates may behave themselves. The media may show civic responsibility.

For election night 2020, Fox (along with others) promises restraint. And I hope they’re right.

Back on Election Day 2000, for the first time, the media was one of the main stories for the night, and not for good reasons. The Sun was one of the lucky ones. We’d hate to relive the inglories of that night this week.