USS Cole Memorial and Bush-Gore Debate TV Recording, October 2000

Martha Stewart. Oprah. The second Bush vs. Gore presidential debate. The USS Cole memorial service, six days after the bombing. All on one Polaroid Supercolor T-120, recorded October 18, 2000. The handwritten post-it on the sleeve ends with “Oprah – and?” Someone ran out of room to write.

October 2000 was a compressed moment. The USS Cole was attacked on October 12. The memorial service was October 18 — the same day this tape was made. The second presidential debate had aired two days earlier, on October 11. The election was three weeks away. Whoever owned this tape was recording history in real time and running a T-120 at EP speed to fit it all.

The tape also has Martha Stewart and Oprah content from the same recording session, which is a strange combination alongside the Cole memorial footage. That’s what makes Sunbury Collection tapes interesting — someone’s actual viewing life, compressed onto magnetic tape. Lost media candidate, not yet streamed.