How the Press Saw the 2000 Election

THE PRESS EFFECT
Politicians, Journalists and the Stories That Shape the Political World
By Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman
220 pages. Oxford University Press. $26.

Too often, Ms. Jamieson and Mr. Waldman argue, the press organizes facts into preconceived "frames" or "narratives," which then harden into the way the public sees those events. For example, during the 2000 election campaign, the press decided that the fundamental characteristic of Vice President Al Gore was that he was wooden with a weakness for making up stories to make himself look better. The frame around George W. Bush was whether he was smart enough or experienced enough to be president. Any missteps by Mr. Gore were seen as signs of dishonesty, while Mr. Bush's verbal miscues were presented as raising questions about his acuity or preparedness.

"In all, in the 54 times during the five post-election weeks that the show hosts questioned the positions of the two camps, a Gore spokesperson was almost twice as likely to be challenged as was a person defending the Bush position," the authors write. The presumption that Mr. Bush was the president-elect and not simply one of two parties in a lawsuit, they say, created the atmosphere that emboldened the Supreme Court to take the election in hand and rule in Mr. Bush's favor.