The Washington Post recently carried the following story:

Elephants Are Red, Donkeys Are Blue
Color Is Sweet, So Their States We Hue
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 2, 2004; Page C01

      The reporter found that before 2000 the colors used for the
parties could vary.    Then red and blue were picked by the network
graphic folk because they contrasted well on TV.  The colors had been
used before 2000, but it appears usually with blue for the Republicans.
  Then in 2000 MSMBC used red and blue, but with red for the Republicans.

      The center of the story is the following:

"The first reference to "red states" and "blue states," according to a
database search of newspapers, magazines and TV news transcripts since
1980, occurred on NBC's "Today" show about a week before the 2000
election. Matt Lauer and Tim Russert discussed the projected alignment
of the states, using a map and a color scheme that had first shown up a
few days earlier on NBC's sister cable network, MSNBC. "So how does
[Bush] get those remaining 61 electoral red states, if you will?"
Russert asked at one point." ....

     As the 2000 election became a 36-day recount debacle, the
commentariat magically reached consensus on the proper colors.
Newspapers began discussing the race in the larger, abstract context of
red vs. blue. The deal may have been sealed when Letterman suggested a
week after the vote that a compromise would "make George W. Bush
president of the red states and Al Gore head of the blue ones."

      So the media decides map colors, not cartographers.  And another
election has been survived.

John Sutherland
University of Georgia