An inconvenient fact-check: Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth on its 20th anniversary
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The night and early morning of Nov. 7 and 8, 2000, is one that serves as a true inflection point for the United States. The time was around 7:50 p.m. Eastern, and all the major networks called Florida for Vice President Al Gore, effectively handing him the election with 272 electoral votes.
But there was one problem: In the quest to get it first instead of getting it right, the networks had called the race before polls closed on Florida's deep-red panhandle, which is largely located in the Central time zone. It was an error that marked a preview of what legacy media would become in the 21st century: unreliable and lazy.
Here's how on the latter: From 6:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. Eastern, 13 broadcast journalists reported a total of 39 times that all polls closed in the entire state of Florida at 7 pm across multiple national networks. How not one reporter, editor, producer, or executive was aware that Florida had two time zones is one of the most unintentional comedic moments in the industry's history.
From there, chaos ensued. The networks were forced to rescind their calls of Florida and the entire presidential election. But at 2:15 am Eastern, the calls were made that Texas Gov. George W. Bush had won Florida and therefore the election to become the 43rd president of the United States.
Team Gore would go on to fight the result in court, arguing that the infamous hanging chads on ballots were miscounted, or not counted at all, which they said handed Bush the election by 537 votes. The Supreme Court finally decided matters on Dec. 12, 2000, in Bush's favor. And to his credit, citing the need for the country to move on and heal, Gore conceded against the wishes of several members of his team.
What happened with Gore from there is, to put it plainly, odd. We all remember Ronald Reagan in 1976, after a close but devastating defeat to President Gerald Ford in a primary that was decided on the Republican convention floor. The Gipper quoted an old English poem on comebacks in his concession speech that proved to be prophetic: "I'll lay me down and bleed awhile. Though I am wounded, I am not slain. I shall rise and fight again."
Reagan went on to capture the Republican nomination in 1980 and defeated President Jimmy Carter in a landslide by capturing 44 of 50 states.
But Gore didn't have that inclination to run again.
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