Ramblings' Journal

According to Dan Rather, the media will not determine the winner...

Dan "What's the frequency, Kenneth" Rather insists -- contrary to some of his distinguished competition -- that the media will not have a major effect on the outcome of tomorrow's election.

So we're down now to the last few hours of a presidential election campaign that seems to have gone on forever, almost since the last on ended. Ended so bitterly with bad calls by the television networks -- including CBS -- disputed vote-counting, a drawn-out court battle, and, finally, a controversial supreme court ruling that decided the election. To this day, three out of four Democrats [including me] believe the election was not legitimate. The hard feelings were put aside, at least temporarily, as Americans united in the wake of 9/11. But then came the war in Iraq and America was divided again. Nearly three out of four voters describe this election as very important, and many are showing it by actively supporting a candidate or joining the hundreds of thousands registering for the first time and then, yes, voting.

The turnout in states that allow early voting has been heavy and encouraging. We hope you will vote, too.

It is not only your right, but your responsibility. It will be our responsibility to report the results accurately as we can, to estimate whom we believe has won only when we are fully confident we have the information to do it. Our attitude is we'd rather be last than wrong. And remember, neither CBS News nor any other news organization will not decide who won or lost. You will with your vote.

I'm sure you'll understand if I view parts of Kenneth's statement with a grain of salt. After all, he's already inserted himself into the middle of this mess to begin with.

His coverage on CBS (as well as network coverage from NBC, ABC, Fox, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, CBC/NewsWorld, CNBC, CNN International, BBC World, C-Span and half the rest of the civilized world) gets underway tomorrow evening at 7P ET.

Posted by mhking at November 1, 2004 10:53 PM