Thirty Six Days of Uncertainty
Overview
Federal
State
Interested Groups
Election Night Coverage |
Election Night Coverage
| Botched projections
on Election Night embarrassed the networks and caused them to examine their
procedures; some called for legislation to address the problem. |
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The House Committee on Commerce
and Energy, chaired by Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), held hearings
on the networks' election night projections on Feb. 14, 2001. Hearing
No. 107-25 from GPO Access (text
| PDF).
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CNN commissioned an independent
review panel which produced a report [Joan
Konner, James Risser, and Ben Wattenberg. "Television's Performance
on Election Night 2000: A Report for CNN," Jan. 29, 2001] (PDF format),
and it is instituting new
policies for election night coverage.
-
CBS prepared a lengthy report
[Linda Mason,
Kathleen Frankovic and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. "CBS News Coverage of Election
Night 2000: Investigation, Analysis, Recommendations," Jan. 2001] (PDF
format).
The networks have generally
favored establishing a uniform poll closing time to address problems raised
by election night projections, and the idea has some support on Capitol
Hill.
Copyright 2000, 2001 Eric
M. Appleman/Democracy in Action |