Indecision 2000

Was watching NBC nightly news just now, and they had a little piece on the Election Night Broadcasters’ Fuckup, which happened when the vote in Florida for the 2000 presidential race was called too early and incorrectly.

They assure us it won’t happen again. They can assure all they want, I just won’t watch be watching the news, I’ll be reading it, instead; I have much greater trust in print news organizations.

Anyway, such talk also brought me back to my own memories of working that night for my college paper, The BG News. We expected the evening to be a late one, because election nights mean extra work and no certain headline until late. We ordered pizza in, feeling like real working journalists, exhilarated and ready to go. The rest of the paper had come together as usual. We just needed to wait for the results, so we knew which AP story to swap in for A1 and what our banner headline should say. We couldn’t wait too long, though, because deadline for our color front page was 11 p.m. and the rest of the paper needed to be delivered to the waiting courier at the campus police station by midnight. That guy, a driver for the Findlay Courier paper, would deliver it to their presses for printing and bundling.

Well, 11 p.m. came and went, as did midnight, and there was still no winner. Deadline was thoroughly blown, and we were flummoxed, with a gaping hole on the front page where our decisive news coverage could be. The pizza had been digested hours ago, the Mt. Dew high had worn off, and it was 3 a.m. before we knew it.

If Jeffy and I didn’t drive this paper to Findlay ourselves, there would be no paper at all, and our advertisers would have several heads on platters. So we took the latest AP story that had come over the wire, typed in a headline — I seem to remember it was the wrong one, but I’ll be damned if I can recall what it said — and hauled ass the 40 miles down I-75 to deliver the flats.

The paper did get printed, thank god, bad headline and all, and we were no worse off than a lot of other, more respectable publications the next day — at least the ones that didn’t have multiple editions.

After our mad rush to Findlay and back, Jeff dropped me off at my dorm, and I fell asleep that night, fully dressed, listening to Peter Jennings on my 13“ TV. When I woke up a few hours later, after dawn, Peter was in his shirtsleeves and the country was in turmoil.

Sure makes me glad I work for a weekly now, instead of a daily. I’ll get a full night’s sleep on Tuesday night no matter what. Though I will miss the pizza, I won’t miss the chaos.

p.s. It’s almost 7:30 and there have been zero trick-or-treaters.

p.p.s. On the upside, the Steelers are winning.

October 31, 2004 | Filed Under politics

nearby posts

« « previous: Happy Day of the Dead Eve | next: Doin’ the pigeon, ooh-ooh! » »

Comments

3 Responses to “Indecision 2000”

Jeffy on October 31st, 2004 8:53 pm

As I recall, it was the perfect headline, one that most people ran the next day. I remember cause I thinkI came up with it: “Too close to call.”

That was such a fun night. Was I editor then?
Kenney on November 1st, 2004 2:45 am

Trick or treat.
MB on November 1st, 2004 7:06 pm

Ahh, yes, that’s right, Jeffy, that was the headline. Not wrong, then. I think you were the editor that fall, and AJ was in the spring. Fun times.

And here you go, Kenney, some candy for my one and only trick-or-treater. I guess all the neighborhood kids got shipped out to the nice suburbs for their fun.