25) Premature Calling of Elections

Media calling the 2000 election results

October 15, 2004

Fahrenheit 9/11 accuses Fox News, a network that has been criticized by some for having a Republican or conservative bias, of influencing the coverage of the 2000 elections by calling the presidency for George W. Bush. The movie cuts from the calls by CNN and other networks around 8 p.m. on November 7, 2000 that Al Gore had taken Florida's electoral votes to Fox's call at 2:15 a.m. on November 8 that Bush had won Florida and the presidency.

However, it should be noted that the movie skips over the statements by all networks around 10 p.m. that night that they had called Florida prematurely and that Florida was actually still up for grabs. It also should be noted that at least one network, CNN, almost called the election for Bush minutes before Fox did, that all networks had the same information that Fox did and made the same call within minutes of Fox's call, and that no network has indicated that it was influenced by Fox's call.

The networks' premature call for Bush arguably did have an effect on the rest of the night and on the ensuing 36-day recount battle. Gore's premature concession was based in part because of the media calls and the resulting confusion and the apparent flip-flop arguably benefited Bush and hurt Gore over the next few weeks.

The movie also suggests that Fox was biased because John Ellis, an executive who is a cousin of George W. Bush, was involved in making Fox's call.

According to press accounts, Ellis was the head of a four-person team that analyzed voting data that Fox got from the Voting News Service. Ellis's team reportedly did not make the final call on any election, but made recommendations to another executive who made the final call.

Ellis reportedly did acknowledge speaking to Bush five times on Election Day.

TV networks were in no rush to call presidential election

www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/2004-11-03-tv-election_x.htm

By Martha T. Moore and Peter Johnson, USA TODAY

TV networks that swore not to prematurely declare presidential winners ended up not declaring a winner at all.

Only after Sen. John Kerry's phone call to President Bush on Wednesday did networks declare the incumbent re-elected.

In the exception to TV networks' caution in projecting winners on election night, Fox News Channel and NBC awarded Ohio's crucial electoral votes to Bush shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, more than 12 hours before Kerry conceded the state and the race.

NBC'S LACK CLASHES WITH WAXMAN OVER 'ELECTION NIGHT TAPE'; REPORTEDLY SHOWS NETWORK INTERFERENCE

www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b66bd577dac.htm

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) wants NBC News to surrender to him alleged in-house NBC videotapes that reportedly show presidential-election-night interference with news operations by General Electric Co. chairman and CEO Jack Welch in support of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

GE, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world, is the corporate parent of NBC, which owns a national TV network, multiple local TV stations and a stable of cable networks. Like many major news outlets, NBC News called last November's presidential race for Republican Bush over Democrat Al Gore, even though the contest wasn't decided by the U.S. Supreme Court until more than one month later in Bush's favor.

Bungled election projections? Blame the feds!

Media misinformation is yet another example of failed antitrust regulation.

http://acrchive.salon.com/tech/feature/200/12/07/antitrust/index.html

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By Moshe Adler

Dec. 7, 2000 | The real story behind the projections debacle on Election Night -- when the networks prematurely called the winner of the presidential race -- is that it was as much a failure of antitrust regulation as of statistical sampling. For although ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC each presented its newscasters and pundits as if they were sitting on top of their own vast and busy information enterprise, in fact they all were relying on the same statistical sample, provided by Voter News Service -- a joint venture of the television networks and the Associated Press that conducts exit polls.

When each news team talked about "our projection" and "our call," it was, in effect, committing consumer fraud. And when Dan Rather said we could take his projections to the bank, it must have been his network's account that he had in mind.

Wall Street Journal, Close Call

www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=95000423

Prematurely declaring a winner wasn't the networks' worst sin in Florida.

Friday, May 4, 2001 11:18 a.m. EDT

The entire Florida election dispute might have been avoided if the networks hadn't declared the polls were closed in Florida when some 5% of the state, in the Central time zone, was still voting. Since those areas voted 2-to-1 for George W. Bush, the GOP nominee probably lost several thousand votes because citizens thought they couldn't cast ballots. Mr. Bush eventually carried the Sunshine State by a mere 537 votes.

It's now well known that all five TV networks and the Associated Press declared Florida for Al Gore at 7:50 p.m. Eastern time, 10 minutes before the polls closed in the panhandle counties. That could not have dissuaded many voters from casting ballots. But far more serious was the announcement by all five networks at 7 p.m. Eastern time that the polls in Florida had closed. As Brill's Content reported: "At 7 p.m., ET, every network was talking about the poll closings in nine states. And every network was wrong: the polls were closing in only eight states. . . . The polls in that heavily Republican [panhandle of Florida] wouldn't close for another hour--8 p.m. ET." The networks, with the exception of Fox News Channel, continued to repeat this misinformation throughout that hour.