Congressman Plans Hearings on Networks' Early Election Calls

Nov. 10 -- Congress will consider whether the television networks’ early projections of an Al Gore victory in Florida might have deterred voters in other states from going to the polls Tuesday.

“When they called the election in Florida, the message coming from the media was that Al Gore was winning all the battleground states,” said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Commerce Committee’s telecommunications subcommittee. “Michigan fell, Pennsylvania fell. … The message was: ‘It’s over, folks.’”

Tauzin says hearings could be held as early as next week to study what impact major news organizations had during the two hours that many of them said Florida had voted in favor of Gore. Later, they declared George W. Bush the winner. Today, the final results were still unclear.

Two Hours in Question

Between 7:49 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and the Associated Press all called Florida, with its decisive 25 electoral votes, for Vice President Al Gore. Polls were still open in several Western states, as well as the northwestern part of Florida.

At about 9:55 p.m. ET, the networks and AP began taking back those projections based on the actual Florida vote count, which showed a tight race between Democrat Gore and Republican George W. Bush.

“I want to respect the right of the media to report the election as they see it,” Tauzin said. “Why did it take so long to make calls in some areas and not in others? … I think the nation would be best served if we had some answers.”

Rather than imposing rules on the media, Tauzin says in past years the government has come to understandings with the media about when they can begin reporting on exit poll information.

Tauzin said the media is inconsistent in its reporting. News organizations called Florida before all its polls had closed. “It took two hours after polls closed in Ohio before we got a result,” he said.