The US Election of 2000 was the closest and most disputed in American history. The debate about the legitimacy of its outcome has mostly focused on what did and did not happen in the voting booths of Florida. The counting and undercounting of the election ballots, the mistaken votes and bizarre "overvotes" was a scandal seen around the world.

Rarely seen and poorly covered in the media was another scandal within that scandal—the role played by the media itself. It is the argument of this book that one can only understand what happened in the election of 2000 by understanding the role, function, and performance of the mass media which covered and miscovered it.

The roots of this deeper scandal can be found in a corporate media environment that had been consolidating for years, as well as in the increasing corporatization of American politics. It reflects a growing symbiotic relationship between increasingly interlocking media elites and political elites. Together, they form a powerful interdependent system in which overt ideology masks more covert subservience to other agendas. Together these two forces form a mediaocracy—a political system tethered to a media system.

For more on Florida, see Danny's film "Counting on Democracy."

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