let's not embarrass the President, OK?

[Doug Millison]

Remember Florida? News Organizations Delay Reporting on Meticulous
Presidential 'Recount' in Light of Attacks.
Journalists involved say time is not right to publish results of
ballot-by-ballot study of nearly 200,000 disputed 'votes.' In part that's
because resources are stretched thin, but another reason is concern that
what they find may undercut the legitimacy of the commander in chief.
by Seth Mnookin


The much-anticipated "recount" of almost 200,000 disputed Florida ballots
from the presidential election -- commissioned by an unprecedented
consortium of major news organizations -- has been put on indefinite hold
because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, journalists involved in the
effort said on Monday. The material was to be released to the participating
news organizations a week ago Monday and would have been embargoed until
yesterday.

Several people involved said the attacks raised two significant problems: a
sudden lack of resources to analyze the painstakingly collected data about
the ballots and, just as centrally, a queasy sense that now is not the
right time to publish information that could well question the legitimacy
of the nation's commander in chief.

While all the participating organizations -- including The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and CNN -- know their plans
are on hold only the Times alluded to the new delay on Sunday, revealing
the detail far down in a Week in Review piece lauding the current spirit of
bi-partisanship in Washington. Publishing the report "might have stoked the
partisan tensions," Times political reporter Rick Berke observed, going on
to say it "now seems utterly irrelevant."

Asked whether a reluctance to question the legitimacy of President Bush was
a factor in putting the ballot project on hold, John Broder, a New York
Times reporter and member of the steering committee overseeing the
analysis, said, "I imagine that individual news organizations have had that
discussion internally." Broder, who didn't want to comment more on the
situation, would say only, "I think the data's ready, but we're not. We'll
publish when we're ready." [...]

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