General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are we really going to pretend we were fooled into the Iraq War? [View all]Samantha
(9,314 posts)USA Today participated with the consortium and I believe I read their reporting first. Here is a clip of something I found:
"An earlier study by a different media consortium reached similar conclusions. That study was conducted by a group that included the Miami Herald, USA Today and Knight Ridder newspapers. As USA Today said of the findings on May 11, 2001:
USA Today: George W. Bush would have won a hand recount of all disputed ballots in Floridas presidential election if the most widely accepted standard for judging votes had been applied.
The newspaper said that Gore might have won narrowly if lenient standards were used that counted every mark on a ballot. "But," it said, "Gore could not have won without a hand count of overvote ballots, something that he did not request."
at http://www.factcheck.org/2008/01/the-florida-recount-of-2000/
But a number of people kind of scoffed at the Consortium's conclusions and kept waiting for the NYTimes reporting. My best memory of that time was that it kept postponing its findings. I believe the Bush administration did not want anything published which disputed the authenticity of his presidency. And I have always believed that is why the myriad of postponents happened. Please remember at that time the press had ceased to cover the dispute for the most part, and Margaret Carlson, in one of those open mikes misspeaks, said "we are not allowed to talk about that," meaning the 2000 election. Also during this time frame, the Spin Room was abruptly taken off the air because Bill Press did continued to talk about it.
But when the NY Times finally published its findings, it was totally worthless because 3 counties in Florida absolutely refused to turn over its ballots. One of those counties was rumored to be among those highest in illegal vote manipulation.
We will never have absolute proof of who won that election, but I do not know of any credible periodical that went out on a limb and literally said the election results remained in dispute.
Sam