How did the networks manage to make so many wrong calls on Election night?

Usually news reporters get to grill Congressmen, but today the situation was reversed at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. Media representatives, testifying before the Committee, asserted that technical problems, not political bias, were responsible for the election-night errors, and that rather than the government stepping in, news organizations could be relied on to fix the problems.

The heads of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, The Associated Press and Voter News Service testified before the panel, which is chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. Voter News Service (VNS) is a consortium created in 1993 by the same six news organizations to provide exit polling data and final voting results.

The media chiefs outlined how the networks erroneously projected Gore as the winner in Florida before all the polls in the state - which are in two different time zones - had closed.

Then, after pulling back their prediction on Gore, the networks compounded their mistake by prematurely declaring Bush the victor in Florida and the president-elect. Several hours later, the media withdrew the Bush projection when all precincts reported and the vote tally showed the race too close to call. At the last minute, Gore changed his plans to make a concession speech in Nashville.

"CBS News and other network news operations made serious mistakes that long, confusing night — mistakes I deeply regret," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said in his prepared testimony.

Tauzin has said he will not seek any restrictions on the networks' freedom of speech and ability to cover an election. But the chairman said he would like to see a universal closing time for all polls nationwide, which would help enable networks to withhold projections until all votes are in.

"What we're saying today, as we did in the 1980s, that the early calls of the election in the East, accurate or inaccurate, while people are trying to vote out West, may have the effect of affecting voter turn out in parts of the country that are still voting," Tauzin said. "Certainly that's true in a state where there are two time zones, as in Florida and Kentucky."

CNN, after an internal review, said it has decided that in the future it will use an another source in addition to the Voter News Service. Tom Johnson, the CNN News Group chairman and chief executive officer, said CNN will keep its viewers better informed of how it decides winners and will not call winners if the balloting margin is less than one percent between candidates.

Heyward said CBS will create a new "leaning" category to describe close races.

While admitting their own errors, several media executives said the problem was compounded by out-of-date voting procedures and slow tabulation.

"I personally would welcome the day," says ABC News President David Westin, "when, shortly after all the polls closed at a set time, we could simply report the actual results of all of the elections because they have been quickly tabulated by a reliable, instantaneous system."

That sentiment was echoed by Democrats on the panel, who also want Congress to go beyond media coverage and take action to help correct faults in state voting and vote tabulation systems. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he hoped the hearing, while looking at the "monumental screw-up" of the media, might better serve as a "wake-up call for all of us here ... to address the real issue of voter disenfranchisement."

Respect The First Amendment	Coverage Issues Must Be Examined