It’s the year 2000, and we’re knee deep in the new age of technology—instantaneous information, y2k fashion and campaign websites galore. The 2000 Presidential Election was one of the first to widely utilize the internet and digital tools in its campaigning. And the wider media was part of the problem that got us into this huge mess of Bush v. Gore and everything it entailed. 

On Nov. 7, Election Night across the U.S., newspapers all over the country were attempting to call the election early; headlines for tomorrow’s paper were due. We had never seen the amount of instant news like this in a contested election—it had arguably been over a century since the last contested election. In 2000, news channels were able to practically live update viewers with the results of the election due to exit polling. The only problem was that the exit polling wasn’t accurate. 

In the early hours of Nov. 8, the margin between Bush and Gore’s votes narrowed. The election came down to Florida as a battleground state. As votes trickled in, newsrooms started calling the race. Fox News was the first to go on air and call Florida a victory for Bush. John Ellis, George W. Bush’s first cousin and a reporter for Fox News, told the New Yorker shortly after Fox’s mistake, “Everyone followed us.”

Fox had just effectively misinformed a nation of Americans with that seemingly innocent early race call. Even Jeb Bush, who arguably had a horse in the race, had more journalistic integrity than Fox News and said the numbers were still too close to call. Yet, Fox News  had managed to dupe Gore himself.

Soon after the unofficial results were called, Gore phoned Bush, informally conceding the election to Bush in what—funnily enough—would not be for the last time. Ellis told the New Yorker that just an hour after Fox called Florida for Bush, the news channel’s vote counter went into reversal for a second time. 

Gore phoned Bush again that night, retracting his concession. What would follow after this election day was over a month of legal battle, while the election results remained contested. 

Without the media’s role in the race, the 2000 election would very likely still have been an unclear race after election day. But the media certainly helped sow confusion in their rush to the presses. Columnists and political leaders were quick to remind the public of this journalistic sin in the lead up to the 2020 election. 

Now, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in an election projected to be possibly as close as the 2000 election—perhaps we should look to the 2000 election as a precedent.