Idiot boxed: one big reason Bush won Florida? Television (prematurely) said he did. By 2001, red-faced network news honchos promised big changes for 2004. Now we're here. And guess what?

THERE WAS PLENTY OF HUMILIATION TO GO AROUND IN the aftermath of the 2000 elections. Vote counters and ballot designers, election boards and state legislatures all came in for heavy criticism. But special ignominy was reserved for the five major broadcast and table networks and their news operations.

The networks that night broadcast multiple incorrect reports, including the premature and still-disputed claim--initiated by FOX at 2:15 a.m.--that George W. Bush had won the state of Florida. "It was the most embarrassing evening in the history of network TV, politically," ...

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