NEW YORK — TV networks declared George W. Bush the president-elect, then took it back during a bizarre night of election coverage that left everyone, including newscasters, flabbergasted.
Newspapers across the country didn't have it any easier. They pushed back deadlines, slowed press runs and planned extra editions. But with the presidential race coming down to the wire and deadlines looming, many papers went to bed — prematurely declaring Bush the winner, even as Florida's crucial votes were still being counted.
"BUSH WINS!" the bold red headline screamed from the New York Post.
"BUSH TRIUMPHS," proclaimed The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia.
After holding out most of the night, The New York Times' Web site around 3 a.m. finally declared: "Bush Captures the White House." About an hour later, the Times' site pronounced the race "tight."
The Times said it released about 100,000 newspapers with headlines saying Bush "appears" to have won. The first paragraph said Bush "was elected the 43rd president of the United States by one of the tightest margins in history."
In downtown Raleigh, N.C., Clyde Wagner was scooping up copies of The News & Observer with the headline "Bush Wins." The paper said more than half the press run used that headline before it was replaced with "Bush Leads."
"I don't know if these will be collector's items, but I'm trying," Wagner said.
The premature headlines were reminiscent of the Chicago Daily Tribune's infamous 1948 gaffe, "Dewey Defeats Truman."
"We stopped the presses, and pulled back just about all of them," said Matthew V. Storin, editor of The Boston Globe, which ran the early headline: "It's Bush in a tight one." "We had about 20,000 either on trucks or around the (loading) dock. We pulled back just about all, but there's no way to be absolutely sure."
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The only things that seemed sure: a recount in Florida and a night no one would ever forget.
The Reuters news agency filed a story at 2:31 a.m. EST saying that Bush had narrowly beaten Gore.
The AP had called Gore the winner in Florida on Tuesday night but then said it was too close to call. The initial projection was based on surveys by Voter News Service of voters leaving polling places. VNS conducted the interviews for the AP and five television networks.
"We're not absolutely sure quite what to do next," ABC anchor Peter Jennings confessed at 4 a.m. EST.
It already had been a nailbiter when, shortly after 2:15 a.m. EST, the networks declared Bush the winner in Florida -- and thus the nation. But by 3:30 a.m. EST, NBC's Tom Brokaw continued to wonder aloud if Florida, where candidates were separated by only a few hundred votes, was truly a lock for Bush.
For viewers, this was edge-of-your-seat suspense that Hollywood couldn't have improved upon.
"If you're disgusted with us, frankly, I don't blame you," Rather told viewers. Over on CNN, anchor Judy Woodruff turned to her colleagues and said, "Could you pass the crow?"
Just before ABC signed off its coverage around 5 a.m., viewers got one final unexpected sight: A studio light burst into flame, then was extinguished by a staffer. Jennings barely missed a beat.
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