SINthysist
Rural Racist Homophobe
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Wed Oct 30, 5:42 PM ET
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - While control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs in next week's elections, U.S. television networks' news divisions also have something vital at stake -- their credibility.
Still smarting from bungled coverage of the 2000 presidential race, when they predicted different outcomes three different times on Election Night, the networks are pledging greater caution in reporting House and Senate races that could alter the balance of power in Washington.
In one historic departure from past election coverage, news executives at broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC and the cable outlets Fox News Channel and CNN have pledged to refrain from calling the winners of any race next Tuesday until all the polls in that state have closed.
In addition, the vote-counting consortium shared by the networks -- the Voter News Service (VNS) -- is midway through a major overhaul that has left networks uneasy about the system's projections data and some of its exit polling. News executives are more confident of the upgraded VNS system for tabulating votes, but that has never been tested in an actual election.
Thus, viewers will see less outright competition in TV elections coverage as networks sift through more sources of information and shy away from being first to call tight races.
"We'll certainly be erring on the side of caution in making sure that we're comfortable in estimating a result before we go on the air with it ... There's no percentage in jumping the gun," said CBS News executive Al Ortiz.
Network executives say nothing is more important to them than restoring viewer confidence in their accuracy after the Election Night 2000 experience of having to twice roll back on projections in the White House race.
"The 2000 election was a real setback for our credibility," NBC News vice president Bill Wheatley said. "It's fair to say we'll be extra cautious in this election."
BACK TO BASICS
"We're going to start with the basics and put a premium on getting the vote count accurate, and worry less about some of the other things we traditionally do on election night, like call races," said Marty Ryan, executive producer of political coverage for Fox News. "I'm sure we will be calling some, but it's not going to be a priority for us."
In place of an emphasis on speedy projections will be a return to "old-fashioned political reporting," said ABC News political director Mark Halperin. For projections they do make, the networks have promised to be more careful in explaining to viewers the sources of information behind their calls.
"There's an absolute premium on being accurate with as much transparency as we can subject people to without boring them to tears," Halperin said.
The very nature of the election could spell a late night for viewers willing to stay tuned until the hottest races are settled. With recounts or court challenges seen as more likely in the wake of the Florida election debacle of 2000, a handful of races -- and perhaps, control of the Senate -- may very well remain undecided until the next day or beyond.
Ortiz noted America may even have to await a run-off election in Louisiana in December if Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu fails to win a 50 percent majority in her race against several opponents and control of the Senate boils down to that seat.
TV coverage of Election Night 2000 was badly tarnished when the networks called the presidential race for Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites), then retracted that projection and later declared George W. Bush the winner. By dawn, however, the networks back-tracked again to proclaim an election toss-up.
The final outcome of the vote in Florida, and the race as a whole, went undetermined until the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) decided the issue in favor of Bush weeks later.
MUCH AT STAKE
With the Republican majority in the House and the Democratic majority in the Senate at stake, Tuesday's election is perhaps the most closely watched nonpresidential race in recent years. And the outcome could be the most momentous since Republicans won control of both chambers midway through President Bill Clinton's first term in 1994.
The network TV fiasco in covering the 2000 election was blamed in part on shortcomings with the VNS, with some lawmakers calling for the system to be disbanded. In the end, the networks chose to go ahead with a four-year overhaul of VNS that was begun about three months before the November 2000 election.
Whereas networks relied almost solely on Voter News Service for their tabulations in 2000, all are planning to check VNS figures against other sources.
CNN, for instance, will tally precinct votes from at least 10 states under its own system called "RealVote." CBS and Fox News said they are putting similar backups in place.
VNS executive director Ted Savaglio said testing of that system "will go right up to Election Day, and things that aren't fully tested we won't use."
Reuters/Variety
Question: Do you believe them, or will the pressure to be first overcome their sense of responsibility?
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - While control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs in next week's elections, U.S. television networks' news divisions also have something vital at stake -- their credibility.
Still smarting from bungled coverage of the 2000 presidential race, when they predicted different outcomes three different times on Election Night, the networks are pledging greater caution in reporting House and Senate races that could alter the balance of power in Washington.
In one historic departure from past election coverage, news executives at broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC and the cable outlets Fox News Channel and CNN have pledged to refrain from calling the winners of any race next Tuesday until all the polls in that state have closed.
In addition, the vote-counting consortium shared by the networks -- the Voter News Service (VNS) -- is midway through a major overhaul that has left networks uneasy about the system's projections data and some of its exit polling. News executives are more confident of the upgraded VNS system for tabulating votes, but that has never been tested in an actual election.
Thus, viewers will see less outright competition in TV elections coverage as networks sift through more sources of information and shy away from being first to call tight races.
"We'll certainly be erring on the side of caution in making sure that we're comfortable in estimating a result before we go on the air with it ... There's no percentage in jumping the gun," said CBS News executive Al Ortiz.
Network executives say nothing is more important to them than restoring viewer confidence in their accuracy after the Election Night 2000 experience of having to twice roll back on projections in the White House race.
"The 2000 election was a real setback for our credibility," NBC News vice president Bill Wheatley said. "It's fair to say we'll be extra cautious in this election."
BACK TO BASICS
"We're going to start with the basics and put a premium on getting the vote count accurate, and worry less about some of the other things we traditionally do on election night, like call races," said Marty Ryan, executive producer of political coverage for Fox News. "I'm sure we will be calling some, but it's not going to be a priority for us."
In place of an emphasis on speedy projections will be a return to "old-fashioned political reporting," said ABC News political director Mark Halperin. For projections they do make, the networks have promised to be more careful in explaining to viewers the sources of information behind their calls.
"There's an absolute premium on being accurate with as much transparency as we can subject people to without boring them to tears," Halperin said.
The very nature of the election could spell a late night for viewers willing to stay tuned until the hottest races are settled. With recounts or court challenges seen as more likely in the wake of the Florida election debacle of 2000, a handful of races -- and perhaps, control of the Senate -- may very well remain undecided until the next day or beyond.
Ortiz noted America may even have to await a run-off election in Louisiana in December if Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu fails to win a 50 percent majority in her race against several opponents and control of the Senate boils down to that seat.
TV coverage of Election Night 2000 was badly tarnished when the networks called the presidential race for Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites), then retracted that projection and later declared George W. Bush the winner. By dawn, however, the networks back-tracked again to proclaim an election toss-up.
The final outcome of the vote in Florida, and the race as a whole, went undetermined until the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) decided the issue in favor of Bush weeks later.
MUCH AT STAKE
With the Republican majority in the House and the Democratic majority in the Senate at stake, Tuesday's election is perhaps the most closely watched nonpresidential race in recent years. And the outcome could be the most momentous since Republicans won control of both chambers midway through President Bill Clinton's first term in 1994.
The network TV fiasco in covering the 2000 election was blamed in part on shortcomings with the VNS, with some lawmakers calling for the system to be disbanded. In the end, the networks chose to go ahead with a four-year overhaul of VNS that was begun about three months before the November 2000 election.
Whereas networks relied almost solely on Voter News Service for their tabulations in 2000, all are planning to check VNS figures against other sources.
CNN, for instance, will tally precinct votes from at least 10 states under its own system called "RealVote." CBS and Fox News said they are putting similar backups in place.
VNS executive director Ted Savaglio said testing of that system "will go right up to Election Day, and things that aren't fully tested we won't use."
Reuters/Variety
Question: Do you believe them, or will the pressure to be first overcome their sense of responsibility?
