September 12, 2000 – CBS World News Roundup; Late Edition – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
September 12, 2000 – 2000 was, after all, an election year. And with every election comes the rash of controversial ads giving off one message or another. This time it was a TV ad attributed to the Bush/Cheney campaign which many claimed gave a subliminal low-blow to the Gore campaign. Gore aids claimed the last four letters in Bureaucrats flashed on the screen for a split-second. They charged the word RATS ran a subliminal negative message to voters and Al Gore protested, but George Bush said it was a silly accusation. With 8 weeks to go before the election, polls were showing an extremely tight race, if not a dead-heat.
Tropical Storm Florence became a full-fledged Hurricane in the Atlantic, with winds inching up from 75mph. Direction wasn’t determined, but many felt making landfall on the East coast of the U.S. was remote, at least as of this day.
Dutch lawmakers voted overwhelming for what became the most extensive gay rights legislation in Netherlands history. The bill converts registered same-sex partnerships to full-fledged marriages and expanded gay couples ability to adopt children.
The Ford/Firestone Tire controversy wasn’t going away anytime soon. Company officials were back on Capitol Hill to testify before Congress. The feud between Ford And Firestone continued as the Senate Commerce Committee looked at the governments response to problem tires. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater told the Senate Committee that Congress should be given more power to see companies warranty records, and require firms like Ford and Firestone to tell the government next time they recalled a product in another country.
Darryl Strawberry left jail in Tampa, Florida this day to begin two years of house arrest. He was sentenced after admitting he violated probation the day before by driving under the influence of prescription drugs. The suspended baseball star said he wasn’t even aware of what happened, and claimed he was driving in a blackout and not aware he had hit anyone.
And Reality TV took a step toward going to Outer Space – Daily Variety reported that NBC was willing to pay a reported $40 million for the rights to develop an “apprentice style” show that staged a competition which would send the winner to the MIR Space Station.
And that’s just a small sample of what went on, this September 12, 2000 as reported by the CBS World News Roundup: Late Edition.
