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Rather’s Selective Labeling

Throughout the 35 days of the Florida election dispute, Dan Rather decided to reveal the loyalties or party affiliation of some key players in the conflict but not others. He chose to label Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris a Republican 25 times—mostly after she had announced that she would uphold a seven-day deadline for submitting votes, not allowing late hand recounts which could have put Gore over the top. Rather only once chose to inform viewers of the party affiliation of the Florida Supreme Court—six out of seven were Democrats and ruled consistently in Gore's favor.

This section displays examples of Rather's subjective labeling behavior, pairing statements about Katherine Harris with statements about the Florida Supreme Court.

For extensive analysis of Rather's coverage, including instances of Rather labeling the U.S. Supreme Court, see Florida Controversy.

"The Bush forces went into federal court trying to stop the hand count. And at the same time, the Republican secretary of state, working under the—Governor George Bush's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, Republican secretary of state, trying to say anything past 5:00 tomorrow is illegal. That's her judgment."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 13, 2000.

"[A] state judge upheld the deadline set by Florida's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 13, 2000.

"And there's also this: Florida's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris, refused to extend tomorrow's flat-out 5 p.m. deadline for all of Florida's 67 counties to submit their voting results. Gore's aids call this decision, quote, "arbitrary and unreasonable" because the recounts by hand that the Gore campaign requested will not be completed by that deadline and Harris may not accept them."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 13, 2000.

"Dateline: Florida. Florida's state supreme court has ruled that there is no--I repeat, no legal reason why counties can't do hand recounts of their votes. This is good news for the Gore forces."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 16, 2000.

"Vote recounts by hand are now under way in disputed counties after the state supreme court cleared the way."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 15, 2000.

"Here's the latest. The Florida state supreme court rules disputed counties can go ahead with their hand counts and recounts of votes."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 16, 2000.

"[A]s of this Friday, the last of the overseas absentee votes come in and the Republican secretary of state of Florida said today that she is holding to a 5 p.m. this coming Saturday deadline for certification of a winner in Florida. So much has happened today."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 13, 2000.

"It is 5 p.m. in the East, one of the deadline hours in Florida. This is the hour all vote results and recounts are due in the Florida secretary of state's office. Here's the latest. With George Bush maintaining a slim 400, possibly as low as 300 vote lead over Al Gore, a state judge upheld the deadline set by Florida's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 14, 2000.

"And underscoring, as has been the case before, but as a point of information, the secretary of state is a Republican and was an active worker for George Bush in the George Bush campaign. She did not recuse herself from her official position and, therefore, she has a lot to say and much control over this present situation.
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 14, 2000.

"Here's the latest. Florida's highest state court has blocked the secretary of state from certifying tomorrow who won, in her opinion, Florida's 25 electoral votes and, presumably, the presidency."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 17, 2000.

"Bush with a big win with the local Democratic judge who backed the Republican state secretary of state's determination to certify votes tomorrow, and without any of the newly counted or recounted votes. He backed that.... Then, as the day goes along, the state supreme court in Florida says, 'We're going to hear their'--on a sort of quick basis--I wouldn't say emergency basis, although that's what it amounted to--'We're going to hear the Gore campaign's appeal that we, the [Florida] Supreme Court, should decide this matter."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 17, 2000.

"The Florida state supreme court has reversed the lower court order and the dictum, if you will, of the Florida state secretary of state. This court says the right of the people to cast their vote is paramount and, therefore, hand counts are to be tallied into the final official count insofar as hand counts are completed by 5 p.m., November 26, which is Sunday."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 21, 2000.

Bush Florida recount effort leader James Baker held a press conference calling on the Gore campaign to accept the second totals once they were certified :
"What Jim Baker proposes is—his deal is basically accept the Florida secretary of state's ruling—this is the Bush supporter, Republican secretary of state—who has said everything's got to be in by 5:00 Eastern time."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 14, 2000.

"As you know, the governor, Jeb Bush is a Republican and the brother of the candidate. Ms. Harris, the secretary of state, a close friend of—of the Bushes, somebody who campaigned for George Bush, and she's helping that strategy along. As—she's an elected official and was given the power yesterday by a [lower] state judge, who's a Democrat, for some of what she's doing, which is by 2 p.m. today she says, 'Listen, anybody who wants to continue hand recounts has to convince me that it's a worthy thing to do.'"
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 15, 2000.

"It's 2 p.m. in the East—the official deadline set by Florida's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris, for counties to convince her, if they can, that vote recounts by hand are necessary. No immediate word on when Ms. Harris will give her decision about whether or not to allow further hand recounts.
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 15, 2000.

"For those of you who may just joining us, the Florida state supreme court, the highest court in the state of Florida, has spoken. It overrides the decision of the secretary of state and a lower court judge and says that hand recounting must be counted in the final tally,"
----Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 21, 2000.

"Vice President Gore's hopes remain alive, at least for the time being. This decision, 4-to-3, by the Florida state supreme court breathes new life into Vice President Al Gore's chances. Doesn't mean he's gonna win the elction. Does mean that his hopes remain alive."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 8, 2000.

"[L]et me just say to our viewers that this is a banner headline of the evening and will be tomorrow: Florida state supreme court reverses a lower Florida court and rules in favor of Al Gore. This opens up many possibilities and, very quickly now, Jonathan Turley, the Bush people will appeal this to the United States Supreme Court, you think fairly quickly."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Specail Report, December 8, 2000.

"The central fact of this story remains that by the secretary of state, working closely with the Republican governor, Jeb Bush, who is, in turn, the brother of Texas governor and presidential candidate George Bush—that, by they're count, George Bush leads by 300 votes."
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 17, 2000.

"Nineteen days after the presidential election, Florida's Republican secretary of state is about to announce the winner as she sees it and she decrees it of the state's potentially decisive 25 electoral votes."
—Dan Rather on 60 Minutes, November 26, 2000.

"Just a couple of hours ago, Florida's Republican secretary of state Katherine Harris officially--what she said--certified Bush as the winner of Florida's presidential vote, of its 25 electoral votes and, therefore, the presidency. Harris put what she called the final victory margin at 537 votes for Bush over Gore."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 26, 2000.

"Now George Bush was officially certified the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes by the state's Republican secretary of state. Al Gore went into court, stopped protesting and started officially and legally contesting that."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 8, 2000.

"The Florida state supreme court has ruled 4-to-3--couldn't be any closer decision--in favor of Vice President Al Gore's position as was argued by David Boies, his lead attorney, that the lower Florida court, in a decision by a Democratic judge who'd been appointed by a Republican...That lower court judge had delivered a haymaker, what appeared to be, if not a knockout blow, something close to that, to Vice President Gore's chances."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 8, 2000.

"Now because--the Florida Supreme Court says because time is of the essence, the recount wil commence immediately."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 8, 2000.

"The court also ordered several hundred votes added to Gore's tally--these are votes taken away earlier, by Gore's contention. This knocks Bush's Florida margin down now to 154. Bush will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a majority of Republican-appointed justices."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 8, 2000.

Here is the only time Rather mentioned to viewers that the Florida Supreme Court was dominated by Democrats:
"Professor [Jonathan Turley], there are people who will consider this question out of line, but since the question was raised in Florida about the secretary of state being not just a Republican, but an active backer of George Bush and not recusing herself, and there were those who raised questions about the state supreme court having mostly, if not entirely Democrats on the state supreme court. On this [u.s. supreme] court, you have a majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents, including Governor Bush's father, who made appointments to the court, why, if we are not—if we are to believe—why would we believe that politics would not enter into these justices' decisions whatsoever?"
—Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 1, 2000.

After the Florida Supreme Court decisions went to the U.S. Supreme Court, Rather highlighted the party affiliations of the nine justices:
"Now the Supreme Court, which is made up of seven justices appointed by Republican presidents, including a couple appointed by Governor Bush's father, George Bush the elder, who was president, has ruled in favor of Bush. The vote on the Supreme Court was unanimous."
--Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, December 4, 2000.

"The Supreme Court, of course, is made up of nine justices. Seven of these justices were appointed by Republican presidents."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 11, 2000.

For more on Rather's labeling of the U.S. Supreme Court, see Florida Controversy. print_file('footer'); ?>