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