TV chiefs to testify before Congress on election coverage

By The Associated Press

02.09.01

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Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., second from left, joins other Republican congressmen to discuss an upcoming House committee hearing examining how the major news networks covered the 2000 election, and how inaccurate reports were broadcast, yesterday, in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — Television network executives will testify before Congress next week on their erroneous election-night projections in Florida and how they plan to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

The networks "have an obligation to make sure that in the next election the reporting system does not influence the outcome," said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., whose House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold the Feb. 14 hearing.

Tauzin told a news conference yesterday that "clearly flawed data models and clearly biased statistical results," as well as the intense competition to be first, led to the mishandling of the Florida election and probably affected races in other states.

At the same time, he said his investigators had found "no evidence of intentional misleading or biased reporting."

ABC News, in a report released yesterday on its election-night coverage, said it relied on mistaken exit poll data, incorrect estimates of the absentee vote and the wrong choice of models from past races in deciding early, along with the other networks, to award Florida to Democratic candidate Al Gore.

It said there was "no basis whatsoever for concluding that there was any intentional bias on the part of anyone who took part in the projection process at ABC News." However, it said, there were discrepancies between exit poll data and actual vote returns and "on average over time they have been shown to favor Democratic candidates somewhat more than Republican."

Between 7:49 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and the Associated Press all called Florida for Gore. Some two hours later, the networks and the AP began pulling back that projection as actual voter counts revealed how close the race was.

Early Wednesday, Nov. 8, the networks declared the state and its crucial 25 electoral votes for George W. Bush, effectively giving him the presidency, but then had to retreat again when the vote ended in a virtual tie. The AP did not call the race for Bush, either in Florida or for the presidency.

Republicans have complained that the networks declared Gore the winner in Florida before the polls closed in the state's Panhandle, where Bush anticipated a strong showing. The Panhandle is in the Central time zone and polls there closed one hour after the rest of the state. They have also questioned whether early decisions to award Florida to Gore might have affected voter turnout in some Western states.

"The system has bitten Democrats in the past and we think it bit Republicans this year," said Tauzin, who has introduced legislation with Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., to set uniform poll closing times for federal elections.

In projecting election winners, the five networks and the AP use Voter News Service, a polling consortium created in 1990, for exit polling data and actual results.

Tauzin praised the networks for separately preparing independent or internal reports analyzing the faults in their data and recommending changes for future elections.

ABC, like others, said it would project winners in a race in a given state only after all the polls in that state are closed. It said it would make projections only if they were justified by independent analysis and would explain to viewers how those decisions were made. Those directly involved in making projections would be insulated from pressures of competition from other news organizations.

CNN last week released an independent report of election-night coverage that accused all the networks of confusing the public and interfering with democracy and called the reporting a "debacle." CNN said it would pay for an independent vote-analysis system and would not use exit projections to call close races in the future.

Invited to testify at next week's hearing are the heads of the networks, the AP and VNS, as well as analysts who looked into election-night coverage. The New York Times reports today that the network and VNS heads are scheduled to testify, but it is uncertain whether AP President Louis D. Boccardi will attend.

Previous

Congressional Republicans charge networks with election-night bias
House Telecommunications Subcommittee chairman says early calls for Gore might have discouraged Republican voters, affected outcome in Florida and other states.  11.17.00

House panel to review news media's election calls
Rep. Billy Tauzin said early call of Florida for Al Gore may have deterred voters in Western states from going to the polls.  11.10.00

Related

Voter News Service scraps exit-poll plans
Some survey data offered, but news consortium said its computer system was not analyzing information properly.  11.06.02