Grand theft 2000 : media spectacle and the stolen election

265 Pages·2001·7.949 MB·English

by  Kellner, Douglas

grand theft
2000
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g r a n d t h e f t
2 0 0 0
Media Spectacle and a Stolen Election
DOUGLAS KELLNER
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS. INC.
Lanham • Boulder • Yew York• Oxford
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Rowman 8c Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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Copyright © 2001 by Rowman 8c Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kellner, Douglas, 1943-
Grand theft 2000 : media spectacle and a stolen election / Douglas Kellner,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7425-2102-8 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-7425-2103-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Presidents—United States—Election—2000. 2. Contested elections—United
States—History—20th century. 3. Press and politics—United States—History—
20th century. 4. Mass media—Political aspects—United States. 5. United
States—Politics and government—1993-2001. 6. Political corruption—United
States—History—20th century. I. Title.
E889 .K45 2001
324.973'0929—dc21 2001019995
Printed in the United States of America
TMThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
—Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I
Imagine that we read of an extremely close election in the Third World in which
the self-declared winner was the son of the former prime minister, a former
spymaster seeking revenge and still highly active behind the scenes. Imagine that
the lightly experienced son lost the popular vote by nearly half a million votes but
won based on some old colonial holdover (the Electoral College) from the nation’s
predemocracy past. Imagine that the victory turned on disputed votes cast in a
province governed by his brother.
Imagine that the poorly drafted ballots of one district led thousands of voters to
vote for the wrong candidate. Imagine that members of that nation’s most despised
caste turned out in record numbers to vote against the son, who had executed
more of them than had any other provincial official. Imagine that some members
of that most despised caste were intercepted on their way to the polls at roadblocks.
... Imagine that certain votes cannot be counted in this province unless the candi­
date requesting the count can somehow prove beforehand that he would win if the
votes were recounted.
—E-mail widely circulated from "an unidentified Zimbabwe politician”
The election has been taken and we’ll have to live with it—but please, not in
harmony, not graciously, not in the full spirit of bipartisanship. Hooey.
All this back-slapping about our democracy doesn’t convince me at all. This
was not a democratic election. One human, one vote did not decide the outcome.
The Supreme Court—which I always thought was above the fray, but is the fray,
captured by the other side—gave the election to their guy.
We all know this crowning of George W. Bush stinks.... He did not win it fair
and square. He snuck it, he wiggled it, his lawyers inveigled it, his daddy pushed
it, his brother leaned on those who needed it, etc. So he has the presidency and
all of its spoils.
—Anne Roiphe, feminist commentator
If, indeed, the Court, as the critics say, made a politically motivated ruling (which
it unquestionably did), this is tantamount to saving, and can only mean, that the
Court did not base its ruling on the law. And if this is so (which again, it unques­
tionably is), this means that these five justices deliberately and knowingly decided
to nullify the votes of the fifty million Americans who voted for Al Gore and to
steal the election for Bush. Of course, nothing could possibly be more serious in
its enormous ramifications. The stark reality, and I say this with every fiber of my
being, is that the institution Americans trust the most to protect their freedoms
and principles committed one of the biggest and most serious crimes this nation
has ever seen—pure and simple, the theft of the presidency. And by definition,
the perpetrators of this crime have to be denominated criminals.
—Vincent Bugliosi, fabled U.S. prosecutor
CONTENTS
Introduction ix
1 Media Spectacle and Election 2000 1
2 The Longest Night 21
3 Indecision 2000 31
4 Out of Control 51
5 Legal Wrangling and Political Spectacle 65
6 Democracy at Stake 81
7 Day of Infamy 99
8 The Media and the Crisis of Democracy 117
9 Bushspeak, Postmodern Sophistry, and Republican Stalinism 135
10 The Battle for Democracy 151
11 Aftermath 185
References 221
Index 225

INTRODUCTION
The battle for the White House following the election of November 7,
2000, was arguably one of the major media spectacles in U.S. history,
comparable to the Army-McCarthy hearings, the Kennedy assassination, the
Watergate hearings, the Iran-Contra affair, the O. J. Simpson trial, and most
recently, the Clinton sex scandals and impeachment trials. It was in many ways
more contained and circumscribed than these other epochal events, taking
place over thirty-six days from the uncertainty of election night to A1 Gore’s
concession on December 13 and George W. Bush’s acceptance of the mantle
of president-elect. The story was highly theatrical with ups and downs, and
surprises and reversals, for the candidates and the global audience, exhibiting
unpredictability and uncertainty until the end. Its colorful cast of characters
and melodramatic story line could hardly be bettered by the most creative Hol­
lywood central casting.
The narrative structure of the media spectacle was conventional, with begin­
nings, middles, and an end, although it was a comedy with a happy ending
for some and a dark tragedy for others. Of course, a contest for the presidency
is more than a spectacle, and there were high political stakes in the drama.
Election 2000 involved one of the most intense and important political con­
tests in recent history, with potential for a constitutional crisis of an unprece­
dented proportion. During the struggle for the presidency, the U.S. machinery
of voting was exposed as obsolete and dysfunctional, and U.S. institutions—
from the television networks up to the Supreme Court—were radically ques­
tioned and continue to face a crisis of legitimacy.
The intense fight for the presidency is, therefore, by all standards a Big
Story. But a story it is, and I propose to undertake a narrative and political
analysis of the spectacle, using the methods of critical social theory, media
analysis, and cultural studies to unpack and interpret Election 2000 and its
stunning aftermath. I will dissect how it was produced and unfolded, what it