NBC's Tim Russert affects the air of the all-knowing insider, omniscient in his grasp of what is about to happen. Interviewing Sen. Joseph Lieberman shortly after the election, Russert demanded that he announce that Gore would concede if the Florida Supreme Court ruled against him on extending the deadline for hand-recounting votes. Lieberman calmly demurred, saying the issue remained open and that he preferred to see what the court decided. But Russert wanted an advance concession. Earlier in the campaign, the reporting of the debates was as dreadful as the debates themselves.
Reporters interpret body language and report it as news.
But no one mentioned that George W. Bush could not remember Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan's name, just after the moderator and Gore had used it. The irony, according to Shogan, is that reporters mostly were for Gore. He believes that Bush's political and campaign operatives did their work better. Bush reaped pure gold from the media's low expectations of him, as opposed to the heightened expectations for Gore. The media confidently believed that Gore would knock Bush out and reduce him to a mute dunce.