RealClear Politics - Commentary: "But Moore leaves out the fact that FOX first called Florida for Gore-and didn't call it back until 2 AM. Indeed, all the networks, FOX included, helped Gore by prematurely calling the Florida polls as closed at 7:00 PM Eastern Time when in fact they were still open until 8:00 in the state's western Panhandle (which is heavily Republican), and almost immediately they declared Democrat Bill Nelson the winner of the state's U.S. Senate race. (CBS alone declared Florida's polls closed thirty-three times between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.) Then, at 7:48, the networks, led by NBC, started calling the state for Gore while voters in the Panhandle still had twelve minutes to get to the polls. Of the thousands of prospective voters who were standing in line or en route and heard the news on radio, many gave up and went home. "
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So, you see, the slimey behavior of CBS news and the other major networks did not begin with Rathergate. They have been sleezeballs for a very long time.