Monday, November 09, 2020

YOUR RIGHT-WING RELATIVES NOW BELIEVE GORE WAS DECLARED THE WINNER IN 2000


Is there an echo in here?



The right-wing pseudo-journalist and the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots aren't alone (although Martin now seems to have deleted her tweet). The belief that the media declared Gore the inner is widespread.



And while a phony newspaper headline that was widely circulated by Trumpers over the weekend was debunked...



... there's now a fake TV electoral map:



I hate to break it to the people circulating this image, but there's no media organization in America called "ANN."

What did the media actually say after the election? Here's the front page of The New York Times from the day after the 2000 election:



Here's what the paper said about the outcome:
The lead in the popular vote switched back and forth throughout the night, with Gov. George W. Bush holding a narrow lead over Vice President Al Gore as the count went into its final hours. The all-important battle for supremacy in the Electoral College came down to Florida, and early this morning, Gov. Jeb Bush seemed to have delivered a hair's-breadth victory to his brother in that fast-growing state, putting him over the top.

But Mr. Bush's margin dwindled and dwindled until only a handful of votes separated the two candidates, throwing the picture into confusion.
And here was CNN's take:
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. This election is making history. Still too close to call between George W. Bush and Al Gore and it is all boiling down to the state of Florida.

It is now 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 5:00 a.m. on the West on November 8, the morning after election day.

... Let's take a look at what we're talking about today. We are talking about a presidential race still too close to call. Neither Bush or Gore have enough of the electoral votes. It's all boiling down to who gets Florida's 25 electoral votes.
And that's where it remained for roughly a month. Here was a Reuters story posted on CNN's website a week later:
Under normal circumstances, when the new U.S. president is known the day after elections, political appointees know when their time is up and start to look for new jobs.

The new president sets up a transition team to find new personnel for the top positions and starts to put flesh on the bones of the policy guidelines he set during campaigning.

This year, with no result eight days after the Nov. 7 elections and the prospect of many days to go, the U.S. State Department is running on autopilot and anxiety is spreading.

If the Democratic candidate for the presidency, Vice President Al Gore, wins in Florida, many of the political appointees could stay on and policy might change little.

If the Republic candidate, Texas Gov. George Bush, takes office, new policy-makers will move in and order a more extensive review of U.S. foreign policy.
Disinformation is spreading. It could be Russian disinformation, but it could also be homegrown. The right in America has stopped trying to win over voters with ideas and policies -- generating fear and anger seem to work much better. This kind of fakery doesn't require special expertise found only in the former Soviet bloc. It's easy. Anyone can do it.

And it works. Your right-wing relatives -- even the ones who are old enough to have vivid memories of 2000 -- now believe that the media called the election for Gore and told you he was the winner for more than a month. But that didn't happen.

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