CNN - Election 2000

CNN - Election 2000


Starring:Laura Bush, Tipper Gore, Clarence Thomas (II), David Boies, George W. Bush, Joseph Lieberman, William Rehnquist, Stephen G. Breyer, Tim Russert, Ted Olson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens, Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader, David H. Souter, Dick Cheney, Sandra Day O'Connor, Lynne Cheney, Chris Matthews (VII), Anthony M. Kennedy
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The election coverage that wouldn't end is recapped in this production by CNN, and hearing about the fiasco in Florida is somehow not as grim an experience as one might expect. A number of faces familiar to CNN viewers (including Judy Woodruff, Bernard Shaw, Bill Schneider, Jeff Greenfield, Candy Crowley, and Larry King) share their memories of events, and enough behind-the-scenes material is included to ensure that the program is more than just a review of what news junkies have already seen. Everyone in the country had an opinion about who was trying to steal the election, and viewing some of the coverage as it appeared will surely revive some bitter emotions. And, it's too bad, America, but there's no way to avoid use of the word "chad." This production is essentially instant history, and the review of Florida ballots by journalists was far from complete when the program was assembled, so no attempt is made to offer a definitive explanation of what happened in Florida. And though it surely contains something to infuriate everyone, this is a good one-hour review of the 36-day debacle that riveted America. --Robert J. McNamara
CNN - Election 2000
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Review of "Election 2000 DVD
  • Magnificent
  • Completely misses the point
  • CNN's strange "victory" lap
  • What really happened in Florida in the 2000 Election?
CNN - Election 2000
Starring: Laura Bush , Tipper Gore , Ralph Nader , David H. Souter , and Dick Cheney
Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Unprecedented - The 2000 Presidential Election - 2004 Campaign Edition
  2. Road to the Presidency
  3. Staffers '04
  4. Journeys With George
  5. The War Room

ASIN: B000059H3I
Release Date: 2001-02-06

Amazon.com

The election coverage that wouldn't end is recapped in this production by CNN, and hearing about the fiasco in Florida is somehow not as grim an experience as one might expect. A number of faces familiar to CNN viewers (including Judy Woodruff, Bernard Shaw, Bill Schneider, Jeff Greenfield, Candy Crowley, and Larry King) share their memories of events, and enough behind-the-scenes material is included to ensure that the program is more than just a review of what news junkies have already seen. Everyone in the country had an opinion about who was trying to steal the election, and viewing some of the coverage as it appeared will surely revive some bitter emotions. And, it's too bad, America, but there's no way to avoid use of the word "chad." This production is essentially instant history, and the review of Florida ballots by journalists was far from complete when the program was assembled, so no attempt is made to offer a definitive explanation of what happened in Florida. And though it surely contains something to infuriate everyone, this is a good one-hour review of the 36-day debacle that riveted America. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Review of "Election 2000 DVD.......2006-07-09

CNN did a good job of staying in the middle of the road on this DVD.

5 out of 5 stars Magnificent.......2005-11-30

If you don't like politics steer clear of CNN -Election 2000, but if you are interested in politics the process and this important part of American political history get this DVD.

I thoroughly enjoyed the informative reflections of CNN anchors and felt that the program represented the situation fairly and without bias.

The DVD is worth far more than what Amazon is asking for, so even though America is an election and five years past this event, if you are interested in looking back in time to an extremely interesting point in American political history, you can't go past this title.

1 out of 5 stars Completely misses the point.......2004-10-13

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't CNN supposed to be one of those "liberal" stations? If that's the case they're the worst liberal station ever because this is a terrible documentary that totally glosses over what happened in Florida.

There was absolutely nothing about the thousands of names that were wrongfully purged from Florida's voter lists. Next to no scrutiny of Katherine Harris and her role in the whole debacle. Nothing about Jeb Bush. They show angry republicans at board of election rooms, simply calling them "republicans." It implicitly implies that these were just concerned citizens when if fact they were republican congressional aides flown in from D.C.

CNN acts confused in this dvd, wondering "how could we have gotten this wrong?" when they leave out the fact that when George W. Bush's cousin at Fox news called the election for the family, CNN fell in line like a sheep. A spineless, pathetic sheep. Wolf Blitzer goes so far to say that the outcome was Gore's fault, because he didn't win his home state. Actually Wolf, the blame belongs to Bush and everyone who helped him steal an election.

Watch this dvd and also watch the Unprecedented dvd. You'll be disgusted.

2 out of 5 stars CNN's strange "victory" lap.......2004-08-22

This is a fairly mediocre recap of Election 2000 that is more about CNN and their talking heads, with the Florida Recount thrown in as an after-thought. Complete with gauzy interviews of their anchors and plenty of *gee whiz* music, CNN's approach is less informative than a rather forced nostalgic sense of "Remember when we all got together and had a wonderful time?" I was appalled.

I'm one of those people that stayed up until 4 in the morning after the 2000 election, so I got to see the media meltdown first-hand on all of the networks, and have no sympathy for CNN's "golly gee" approach to remembering what happened. All of them were operating on a herd-mentality, and both the Bush and Gore campaigns had every right to be furious, and Americans disgusted, not just for their miscalling Florida numerous times, but for their effect on voter turnout all across the country. I remember feeling malicious glee listening to Judy Woodruff babbling about the history of the Texas War Memorial thingy and Candy Crowley's canned Bush-victory report while on CBS Dan Rather finally got on the ball and called Florida properly as too close to call and within the recount percentage.

The CNN anchors deal with the exit-poll failure in a couple of throw away comments in the documentary, but to be fair Jeff Greenfield rightly called the media's handling of the election a failure. The documentary's approach to the Recount, however, is essentially a re-run of the media's failed coverage of it in 2000, where their focus was again on the artificial horse-race quality of media punditry--where their concern was along the lines of "How does this make Gore/Bush look" instead of on the more important question of "Who won? And how do we find out?"

Judy Woodruff's comments in the documentary resurrect the media's ennui, even telling us that polls showed Americans favored ending the recount, when polls actually showed Americans wanted an accurate count. In that period, what clearly developed in the media was a desire to end the process, for what was perceived then--as now--as for the good of the country. The image of Gore a sore loser was the dominant theme, alien to the actual question of "Who won?" That mentality persists today in their documentary, and questions of the legitimacy of such a mentality are not even considered.

This of course means that the scandal of voter disenfranchisement in Florida was ignored, the complicity of Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Governor Jeb Bush in manipulating voter rolls is not touched on, while Harris seems to get a "good soldier" pat on the back from CNN. The thug tactics of Republican lawyers and Hill staffers, and their effect on the process, are not acknowledged. Since they confine everything to election night, the recount, and court cases and judge everyone and everything from within that narrow time frame, what actually happened in Florida (and why) doesn't register at all in this documentary.

In the end, though, I agree that the Democrats fouled up legally and politically, and should have demanded a state-wide hand recount, and CNN is also right in pointing out that Gore's irresponsible campaigning lost not only Clinton's Arkansas, but his own home-state of Tennessee. That does not, however, excuse CNN's avid participation in the groupthink that that political reality in those other states justified their disastorous and mediocre coverage of the Florida Recount.

Now, the UNPRECEDENTED documentary clearly has its own agenda, even if you agree with it. But at least that documentary is actually *about* the political process and how it is abused, rather than CNN's self-congratulatory approach to the election, and the incestuous idea that somehow politics is measured, understood, and evaluated solely by CNN's own images and coverage.

3 out of 5 stars What really happened in Florida in the 2000 Election?.......2004-07-02

We all know what happened during the 2000 Elections, particularly in Florida. No one expected it, it was "unprecedented." At the time, everything was jumbled through the media, and it was really hard to get a good look at the news going on regarding, what was going on. Now, almost 4 years later, this DVD anwsers the call. If you want the truth about what really happened, and what was really going on in Florida during the election and shortly after, then rent this DVD. A little comedy was added in for kicks, and it showed what each side was doing during the time, from a much unbiased perspective.

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