By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
The following article produced by the AP indicates CNN plans to change
future election coverage. Exit polls and VNS in particular take hits
in the report reprinted here. CNN may develop its own proprietary
sampling system. The concept of predicting winners from key precincts
may be scrapped as well.
NEW YORK (AP) - An independent report released Friday accused
television networks of confusing the public and interfering with
democracy on election night, calling their actions an ``abuse of
power.''
The report by three veteran journalists was commissioned by CNN but
took a broader look at all the networks prematurely declaring George
W. Bush the winner that night.
CNN responded by promising to pay for an independent vote-analysis
system and to not use exit projections to call close races.
The report condemned the networks in unusually harsh language for
twice declaring - and then retracting - winners in Florida on election
night. Television's system of analyzing voter information
``self-destructed,'' it said.
``Television interfered with the electoral process and the election
result,'' the report said. ``In our opinion, that constitutes an abuse
of power, if unintentionally so, by CNN and by all the mainstream
television news operations.''
The network calls created a premature impression Bush was the winner
that carried through the post-election challenge, when Gore was
labeled a ``sore loser'' by opponents, the report said.
CNN's own performance that night was ``a debacle,'' the journalists
said.
ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN and MSNBC all declared Gore the winner in
Florida before all the polls in the state had closed. Each of the
networks - including CNN on Friday - have since promised not to call a
state for a candidate before all polls are closed there.
The Associated Press wrongly called Florida for Gore early in the
evening. Unlike the networks, however, the AP did not declare Bush the
winner later that night, a decision CNN's report said should be
applauded.
The report said the networks were done in by a competitive drive to be
first in declaring states for a particular candidate and an
overconfidence in experts and polls. That competition was ultimately
foolish since few viewers knew who was first and because each network
paid to use the same source of information, the journalists said.
The networks and the AP are members of Voter News Service, which
provided exit polling data and voter tabulations. VNS data has been
criticized as flawed, and the report said VNS used outmoded technology
that the networks failed to upgrade.
VNS' own future is in doubt. Its members are reviewing another report
on the company's election night performance and deciding whether to
pour more money in or start something new from scratch.
On Friday, VNS issued a summary of that independent study, which
concluded that the company's Florida projections seriously
underestimated the number of absentee ballots returned and that the
samples of key precincts were too small for drawing conclusions about
statewide results.
VNS also failed to properly convey to its members at various points
that night the risk that they could be making a wrong declaration,
that report said.
None of the other networks offered comment Friday on the CNN report.
Eason Jordan, CNN's top news executive, declined to comment on the
journalists' characterizations, but said measures were being taken to
avert any future problems.
``What I can tell you is that CNN is going to take the time required
and have the standards in place to make accurate calls,'' Jordan said.
``This will slow down our process somewhat, but we strongly believe
it's more important to get it right than to get it first.''
CNN did not go as far as the report suggested in making changes. While
the report recommended networks stop using exit polls entirely to
project winners, CNN said only that it wouldn't use exit polls in
states with close races.
The report also recommended networks stop using returns from key
precincts to project a winner. Instead, CNN said it would fund its own
new system to sample key precincts in close states, which Eason
estimated would cost ``millions of dollars.''
``We are prepared to go it alone if necessary,'' he said. CNN said it
would remain with VNS only if significant improvements are made.
The CNN report was written by James Risser, former director of the
Knight Fellowship Program at Stanford University; Joan Konner, former
dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism; and Ben
Wattenberg, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Other networks have released their own internal reports with similar
recommendations for improvements, but none provided such a damning
overview of television's performance as a whole.
The CNN study, as well as the others, said it could find no evidence
of a bias against Bush in the networks' election night calls, as
alleged by House Republicans.
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