Air Date: Week of November 17, 2000

This week, listeners comment on our coverage of the presidential election.

Transcript

CURWOOD: And now, time for your comments.

(Music up and under)

CURWOOD: Not surprisingly, politics were the rage this week. There are a lot of angry Democrats out there, and it isn't George W. Bush who is the target. Robert Morris writes from Brooklyn, where he listens to our program on WNYC. He describes a political cartoon which he says perfectly reflects his views: "It depicts a Ralph Nader-like character standing in the midst of a forest of tree stumps, obviously the remains of a cut-down old growth forest. According to the sign in the cartoon, this forest is the "George W. Bush National Forest." Ralph Nader is depicted as saying, "What a wonderful party we'll have in four more years."

Paul Dewey listens to us on KQED in San Francisco and offered these views on the Green Party: "The reason the Green Party's viability is real and greater than that of other third parties is that the Green Party has a real positive agenda: the environment. The rise of the Green Party has been slow and steady, with a genuinely solid base built beneath it."

Dave Detrisac is less impressed. He listens to WKAR in East Lansing, Michigan. He says the Green Party, to its detriment, is about much more than the environment. "Other planks of the Green Party," writes Mr. Detrisac, "are demand for a 30-hour work week with no pay cuts, breakup of big banks into public community banks, and converting businesses into worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives or public enterprises. I believe that those other planks in the Green Party's platform will overwhelm the environmental concerns and doom the party."

And finally, apologies to all, especially the Oregonians who noticed what proved to be an error in our coverage of the election in that state. At the time we went to air last week, George W. Bush was in the lead. But Al Gore eventually came out ahead by almost 5,000 votes. Exit polls are not perfect, and neither are we.