Newseum highlights media's history of election blunders
By The Associated Press
11.09.00
Printer-friendly page
 |
| Mike Crump, 12, of McLean, Va., left, looks at newspaper
front pages from around the world displayed at the Newseum yesterday. |
ARLINGTON, Va. — A close election. A confused result. And a
revolutionary, wireless technology meant to bring news to people instantly.
The year was 1916 and from New York, Lee De Forest, an inventor and
radio pioneer, made the first radio broadcast of presidential election results.
The new president of the United States, he announced, was Charles Evans
Hughes.
De Forest's second unintended milestone was becoming the first
broadcaster to get it wrong — Woodrow Wilson actually was the winner.
The incident was one of many media faux pas concerning presidential
elections found by researchers at the Newseum, The Freedom Forum's museum of
news. Inspired by the 2000 election and the news media's premature declarations
of victory following the Nov. 7 voting, the researchers found seven elections
in their archives in which the media announced the wrong winner, said Eric
Newton, a news historian.
"The fundamental problem is you can't report what hasn't happened yet.
No matter how fast news gets, you can never get faster than live," Newton said.
"These kinds of mistakes have always been made, and sometimes it's the rush,
the speed of trying to get a scoop, sometimes it's bias, sometimes it's an
accident."
In addition to the famous Chicago Daily
Tribune headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" in 1948, Newton cited
other examples, such as when the Bay State
Democracy of Boston gave the 1840 election to Martin Van Buren
instead of William Henry Harrison and the El Paso
Times incorrectly reported that William Jennings Bryan had
defeated William McKinley in 1896. A more thorough search would find even more
examples, he said, especially in close elections.
Newton spent yesterday discussing past and present media mistakes with
visitors to the Newseum, which displays the front pages of newspapers from
around the world.
"The information explosion gives us this chance to look behind the
scenes of news," he said. "Now we're able to see how chaotic election nights
really are, and everyone gets to feel like they're part of the crazy newsroom
that can't quite figure out what's going on."
Newton said De Forest wasn't alone in picking the wrong winner in 1916
— Cleveland's The Plain Dealer
ran a banner headline proclaiming "Hughes wins Election."
Now the 2000 election has contributed dozens of examples — of
the 46 American papers on display at the Newseum, 15 initially declared Texas
Gov. George W. Bush the winner in yesterday's editions, said Tim Kenny, the
news history director. By next week, the museum should have a new exhibit
dedicated to those papers and their subsequent corrected editions.
Yesterday's edition of The Oakland
Tribune cried "It's George W." from its front page, and
El Nuevo Herald, a Miami
Spanish-language paper, blared "Victorioso George Bush."
The Rockford (Ill.)
Register Star conducted an emergency
punctuation transplant between editions, transforming "Bush Wins!" into "Bush
Wins?"
That switch drew the attention of Mike Crump, 12, of McLean, Va., who
was visiting the Newseum with his father.
Crump, the editor of his school's monthly newspaper, the
Knapsack Notes, said he planned to
cover the election in his next edition and had learned a lot from the
professional media coverage.
"I thought it was pretty funny how most of the headlines were wrong,"
Crump said. "You shouldn't always believe everything you hear on the news."
Update
Oklahoma lawmaker proposes presidential election-return blackout
Legislation would bar state election officials from reporting vote results for 2 ½ hours, restrict exit polling.
11.14.00
Related
Group with GOP ties sues TV networks over early call on Florida
Lawsuit filed in Okaloosa County seeks to prevent networks, Voter News Service from making similar projections in future elections before all polls close in a state.
11.16.00
Congressional Republicans charge networks with election-night bias
House Telecommunications Subcommittee chairman says early calls for Gore might have discouraged Republican voters, affected outcome in Florida and other states.
11.17.00
Networks should shun congressional hearings on election coverage
By Douglas Lee Voluntary participation by media in hearings would legitimize an illegitimate inquiry.
11.22.00
Senator considers resurrecting legislation to regulate election reporting
Meanwhile, Walter Cronkite suggests news organizations slow down in calling elections.
11.27.00
Florida election returns prove Achilles' heel for news media
Networks, newspapers backpedal after prematurely declaring George W. Bush winner of 2000 presidential race.
11.08.00
