Protesters decry media bias

Politics: Republican supporters demand an end to the hand recount in Florida; call for Bush to take presidency

By BRENDAN LOY
Assignment Editor

Joining the local post-election protest fray Saturday, supporters of George W. Bush gathered at Fox News Headquarters, then joined Al Gore supporters at the Federal Building to denounce the news media as irresponsible and liberally biased and, more immediately, to call for an end to the manual recount in Florida.
"I'm confident that Al Gore will find 931 or more votes in West Palm Beach County," said Scott Schmidt, a 1996 USC alumnus and a protester on the side of Bush, the Republican candidate for president. "It's a great spot for fishin'."
Signs at the Fox News protest shouted such slogans as "The Daley Family: Stealing Elections Since 1960" and "Stop Vote Fishing." Many referred to the Gore-Lieberman ticket as "Sore Loserman."
The pro-Bush side moved its protest to the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard as a counter-protest to a rally there in favor of Gore, the Democratic candidate. Both sides were asking passing motorists to honk for them, making it difficult to ascertain who was getting more support.
But a week after Democrats dominated Wilshire Boulevard with their demands for a re-vote, the Republicans won this day, at least in terms of manpower. Only a few dozen Gore supporters were on hand, so the Bush protesters 100 or more nearly overwhelmed them.
Bush supporters were clear in their message.
"Bush won the first time, Bush won the recount, Bush has won in the absentee ballots," Schmidt said. "He will be our next president, unless it gets stolen.
"The way they're recounting and even trying to revote I bet Paul Hackett wishes he could do that a few times this season."
Protester Christopher Cook agreed. He quoted a line from a movie stating, "Yeah, we're going to count, and we're going to count, and we're going to keep counting until we win.
"Look, that really is what's going on here," he said. "They don't like the result, and they're desperately trying to change it however they can."
Tod Burnett, a 1988 USC alumnus and an organizer of the protest, echoed those sentiments.
"They're trying to manipulate the election of an outcome that they didn't like, and that's why the Gore camp is doing this, unfortunately," he said. "But we're not here for that, necessarily. That's a side issue, frankly."
The main issue: the news media. Most of the demonstrators' ire was focused on media's early call of the election the incorrect exit poll-based declaration at 4:47 p.m. Pacific time that Gore had won the crucial state.
"The media has really manipulated the election this time," protester Peter Su said. "Al Gore allegedly won the popular vote, but we all know that if the media hadn't made that premature call, a lot (more) people would have voted."
Su said that although Gore was declared the winner in Florida before polls closed in the mostly Republican western part of the state, the Florida outcome was not likely affected by the call, since it came only 13 minutes before all polls closed. But nationwide, he said the impact was huge.
Schmidt disagreed, saying 13 minutes of hopelessness could have convinced hundreds or even thousands of Republican voters in western Florida to abandon plans to vote, enough to swing what turned out to be a razor-tight race in the state. As for the national impact, Schmidt, who was working the phone banks for the Republican Party on election night, said the incorrect Florida prediction affected him personally.
"When they called Florida, I said, ŒYou know what? It's not worth it,'" he said. "Because California was such an uphill struggle to begin with, it was very demoralizing for myself and other Republicans here, and I just went home."
Burnett said Schmidt's case was not an isolated incident. He added that predictions of "too close to call" races in Georgia, Virginia and other states where Bush eventually won by a large margin, coupled with the false Florida call, had a devastating impact on Republicans in the west.
"Many volunteers were disgusted and sad and crying," he said. "They gave up. At the same time, more importantly, voters across this nationŠdid not go out to the polls. They said, ŒHey, it's over. If he doesn't win Florida and it's too close in Georgia and Virginia, there's no way. He's not going to win.'"
"For all the communications students at USC, this is really a lesson in ethics and responsibility, that the media has to be responsible and cognizant of the effects that it has on people," Schmidt said.
Democrats protesting for their side disagreed.
"They're playing the ref," said Tammy Talpas, insisting that if the media is affected by any political bias, it is the corporate interests of the stockholders in media conglomerates such as Time Warner and General Electric.
Talpas floated the idea of throwing Florida's 25 electoral votes presently the linchpin to the election out of the Electoral College entirely.
"Honestly, I don't see, with everything going on in Florida, how their results can be legitimate," she said.
"It is, right now, a moral tie," Talpas added.
Talpas spoke while holding up a sign with a picture of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and the slogan, "For Sale: American Presidency (Slightly Tarnished)."
Jordan Berliant, another pro-Gore protester, agreed with Talpas' anti-Harris sentiments.
"I'm outraged at the actions of the Republicans in Florida, particularly the Secretary of State, who was co-chair of the Bush campaign (in the state) and wants us to believe that she made an impartial, reasoned and fair decision to disallow the recounts," Berliant said.
But while Gore supporters claimed Harris and other Republicans are trying to steal the election, Bush supporters made just the opposite claim. Bill Tracy of Burbank, a Korean War veteran and a pro-Bush demonstrator, said that the Gore campaign's legal maneuvers in Florida are political robbery.
"I care about our country and where it's going, and this election that they're trying to steal in Florida is a terrible shame," Tracy said. "It's really shameful. But my reason to be here is to make Gore lose. I don't care for Bush so much, but Gore must lose. We can't afford to have that Communist as our president."
Jean Heinl of Southgate agreed. Asked whether the Democrats are trying to steal the election, she said, "It sure looks that way."
Cook offered an explanation for what he, too, sees as an attempted Democratic theft.
"Liberals believe that they have the moral high ground, and that Republicans are evil and want to put the poor into cattle cars and shoot babies in the head andŠkeep the races down and do all these horrible things that Republicans have nothing to do with," he said. "And consequently, the left feels that that moral high ground necessitates that they take whatever steps are required to win, even if that means engaging in behaviors that are totally (in violation) of the process."
Again, the Democratic protesters had a decidedly different perspective.
"I think it's kind of laughable that they're saying we're trying to steal the election," said Gloria Bondo, a pro-Gore demonstrator. "All we're trying to do is get everybody's vote counted. This is a democracy, and we should trust the people."
The Democratic side had its share of clever rally signs as well. "Shag Bush: Say No to Austin's Powers," one poster read.
But the Republicans appeared to have cornered the market on "chad" jokes, referring to the tiny pieces of paper whose "hanging," "trap-door" or "pregnant" status in disputed Florida counties could decide the presidency.
"Govern by law, not by chads," one sign read. "Dimpled chads can't steal our election," another said. Stated a third sign: "Wanted: Democrat Chad and Dimple Counters."
"You know what, I'm sorry," Burnett said. "I think the ballot in California is far more complicated. We've got a lot more chads here in California than they do out in Florida."

Copyright 2000 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 141, No. 58 (Monday, November 20, 2000), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 11.