Grand Theft 2000

Media Spectacle and a Stolen Election

Grand Theft 2000 cover

Grand Theft 2000

Media Spectacle and a Stolen Election

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Description

The battle for the White House following the election of November 7, 2000 was arguably one of the major media spectacles in U.S. history, comparable to the Army-McCarthy hearings, the Kennedy assassination, the Watergate hearings, the Iran-Contra affair, the O.J. Simpson trial, and, most recently, the Clinton sex scandals and Impeachment trials. The election was in many ways more contained and circumscribed than these other epochal events, taking place over 36 days from the uncertainty of election night to Al Gore's concession on December 13 and George W. Bush's acceptance of the mantle of President-Elect. The story was highly theatrical with ups and downs, and surprises and reversals, for the candidates and the global audience, exhibiting unpredictability and uncertainty until the end. Its colorful cast of characters and melodramatic story line could hardly be bettered by the most creative Hollywood central casting.
In Grand Theft 2000, Douglas Kellner recounts the story of a stolen election and Republican coup d'etat, focusing on the flaws of the system of democracy in the United States that allowed this event to take place. Kellner examines what the events of Election 2000 tell us about politics in the U.S. today and the alarming consequences for democracy in the battle for the White House. Grand Theft 2000 presents a historical narrative of the heist of the presidency as well as a critique of the media and political system that registers a crisis of democracy in the U.S.A. today. Arguing that the media are largely to blame for the theft of the presidency by the "Bush machine," Kellner shows how failures of voting technology and literacy, Republican manipulation of the Florida electoral process and political system in the counting of the votes, and structural problems with the system of democracy in the United States reveals a crisis of democracy that requires radical measures. Concluding sections on "Lesson and Conclusions" suggests some solutions to the problems revealed and a final secti

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 1. Media Spectacle and Election 2000
Chapter 2 2. The Longest Night
Chapter 3 3. Indecision 2000
Chapter 4 4. Out of Control
Chapter 5 5. Legal Wrangling and Political Spectacle
Chapter 6 6. Democracy at Stake
Chapter 7 7. Day of Infamy
Chapter 8 8. The Media and the Crisis of Democracy
Chapter 9 9. Doublespeak, Postmodern Sophistry, and Republican Stalinism
Chapter 10 10. The Republican Coup d?tat and the Struggle Over Democracy
Chapter 11 11. Lessons and Conclusions
Chapter 12 12. Aftermath
Chapter 13 Appendices

Product details

Published Aug 28 2001
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 264
ISBN 9780742521025
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions 231 x 159 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

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Environment: Staging