Whether you support George W. Bush or Al Gore, you'll never forget Tuesday night.

        Watching Election Night 2000 will be remembered as one of those defining moments in our culture, like the days we gathered around the TV after the shuttle Challenger exploded and John F. Kennedy was shot.

        It was an unbelievable night, filled with more drama, tension and surprise twiststhan The West Wing or The X-Files. It was live TV at its best and worst — exciting, unpredictable and imperfect, if not downright sloppy.

        Television, usually the most reliable medium for election results, couldn't get it right. In fact, the networks got it wrong — twice. Network anchors candidly admitted their mistakes in their rush to judgment.

        For the first time in TV history, networks retracted a projection after giving a state (Florida) to a candidate. Then they did it again, though many viewers had fallen asleep by that time. And many Americans woke up to hear NBC's Katie Couric announce that the race was still undecided.

        Networks gave Florida to Mr. Gore about 8 p.m., then started backing off the prediction about 9:45 p.m. Sometime after 2 a.m., the Fox News Channel and NBC put Florida in Mr. Bush's column, only to back off before dawn.

        “That would be something if the networks managed to blow it twice in one night,” said NBC's Tom Brokaw about 3:30 a.m., before NBC reversed course.

        Earlier in the evening, Mr. Brokaw and NBC political guru Tim Russert were counting up the electoral votes for a Gore victory, based on winning Florida — after CBS and CNN had changed their minds and declared Florida “too close to call.”

        If you think network elections experts go crazy scrutinizing sample precincts to be the first one projecting a state victory, imagine the scene in NBC's “war room” when they realized that CBS and CNN has just pulled Florida away from Mr. Gore — while Mr. Russert was telling NBC viewers how easy it will be for the vice president to win the election with Florida firmly in hand.

        Ohio viewers should have suspected this election night would be unlike any other when the networks took more than an hour to call Ohio for Mr. Bush. Those who knew Mr. Bush was expected to win the Buckeye State by 10 points could figure that elections officials were dealing with a heavy voter turnout and unclear patterns in the randomly selected precincts used for exit polling and projections.

        After the fluctuation of Florida about 10 p.m., the network anchors repeatedly emphasized that we were in for a long night.

        Or in the words of CBS' Dan Rather, we were witnessing “a ding-dong battle.” The race was “jar-lid tight,” he said, so “don't bet the trailer money on it.”

        After all, Mr. Rather said, the vote tally was “as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford.”

        But that was hours after Mr. Rather said at the beginning of the evening's coverage, “Let's get one thing straight right from the get-go: We would rather be last in reporting returns than be wrong. If we say somebody's carried the state, you can take that to the bank.”

        As for the networks' graphics, some were as ancient as a '55 Philco. NBC's Mr. Russert eschewed modern digital technology and tallied electoral votes in marking pens on a small wipeable slate, while CBS' Mr. Rather pointed to the changing TV electoral map with a yellow lead pencil.

        It was a TV night unlike any other. For the first time in decades, many Americans went to bed with one candidate leading the popular vote and the other winning the electoral vote — only to wake up and learn the results had flip-flopped.

        Who won the ratings Tuesday night? Who cares? The real winners were the American people.

        Tuesday night was one huge, terrific national civics lesson. (Who doesn't understand the Electoral College now?) It was the night we learned that every single vote counts.

        Some will complain (again) about the networks rushing to project winners before being dead-sure of results. Expect to hear renewed calls for the networks to change their practices, or for uniform national hours for voting.

        So here is my TV projection: The networks (and wire services) will continue to do their best to cover breaking news the best they can, as reliably as possible, as the events unfold.

        We'll continue to watch election results. And we'll probably complain that they aren't as excit ing as the Bush-Gore race of 2000, the night America was glued to the TV once again.

        That doesn't happen too often in our increasingly fragmented world of 200 cable channels and the Internet.

        I don't expect anything to change. But don't bet the trailer money on it yet.

       
       John Kiesewetter is TV/radio critic for the Enquirer. Write to him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax: 768-8330; E-mail: Jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.
       

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