From the WSJ Opinion Archives
ELECTION 2000
The Media's Pro-Gore Bias
They paint Katherine Harris as partisan and Bob Butterworth as disinterested.
When reporters covering World War II confronted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and told him they had discovered when and where the next Allied attack would occur, Ike had a simple, yet profound response. "I'm not going to censor you fellows," the Kansan said. "I'm just leaving it up to each man's sense of responsibility."
Watching the recent news coverage of the Florida recount, I was reminded of Ike's wisdom. In no way should the media halt their nonstop coverage of the recount. Elections are too important, and the First Amendment is too precious. But the media can and should report in a more responsible and accurate manner.
Let me give you an example of media bias. Realizing that it is losing on the message, the Gore campaign has now resorted to attacking the messenger. In this case, it is assaulting the integrity of the secretary of state of Florida, Katherine Harris, in the hopes of blurring the fact that she is simply upholding the law. Never mind that she was elected by the people of Florida. Never mind that she has been praised by Democrats and Republicans for her work on the state's behalf. And never mind that she does not have a partisan reputation.
Ms. Harris has said that she will uphold the election laws in Florida, and for that, her character is questioned. Vile comments made by Alan Dershowitz (and reported in the press) referring to Ms. Harris as a "crook," only serve to remind us of the poisonous rhetoric directed at some women by this administration over the past eight years.
But it's one thing for the Gore campaign to question her integrity. It's another for the mainstream media to follow suit. Yesterday's banner headline in the New York Times proclaimed, "Judge Upholds Hand Recounts in Florida." No fair and balanced reading of that ruling would come to that conclusion.
Staying with the Times: In a front-page story about Ms. Harris in Tuesday's edition, the lead sentence called her a "Republican Party stalwart who serves in Governor Jeb Bush's cabinet." The story went on to discuss her role as co-chair of George W. Bush's Florida campaign. It would be okay if the Times wanted to label this as an opinion piece. But the front page? This was not serious news. It was an editorial posing as a front-page story.
But if the media are unable to refrain from labeling certain players as "partisan Republicans," then fairness demands that they hold Democrats to the same bar. Unfortunately, this appears too much to ask.
One of the central figures in this entire recount is Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth. On Monday, Mr. Butterworth came forward with an advisory opinion urging Palm Beach County to ignore Ms. Harris's ruling that manual recounts should not be conducted there. This despite the fact that Mr. Butterworth's own Web page says he has neither the authority nor the jurisdiction to provide advisory opinions on election issues.
In reporting these events, few in the media have mentioned that Mr. Butterworth is an intense partisan who was Mr. Gore's campaign chairman in Florida. A double standard?
Nor will it do for pundits to tell us that their polling shows the American people want all the votes to count. Of course the American people want all the votes to count. But how would they respond to an accurately phrased question: "Do you think there should be recount after recount in selective highly Democratic counties until the Gore campaign gets the result it wants?"
T.S. Eliot once said that politics is too important to be left to politicians. I hope the same will not be said of journalists. I believe the American people would make a few simple requests of the mainstream media: Let's be fair, let's be accurate, let's be balanced, and let's do this right.
Mr. Dole, former Senate majority leader, was the Republican candidate for president in 1996.
