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2004 US Presidential Election
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November 02, 2004
Misc. | Networks Determined Not to Repeat 2000

From eye-popping backdrops to overhauled procedures, television will unfurl many changes Tuesday night in its coverage of the 2004 presidential election. But news executives agree on the biggest: They cannot repeat the debacle of 2000.

“Nobody wants to go to Congress and explain why we got it wrong twice,” said David Bohrman, CNN’s Washington bureau chief.

“We just don’t want to have another blow to our credibility,” said Bill Wheatley, NBC vice president of news.

[…]

Caution will be the approach this year, TV executives say. They will strive to be more transparent in relaying the results.

[…]

“The guiding principle of the projections is: Be accurate,” said Dan Merkle, ABC’s decision desk director. “If we’re not fully confident, we’ll wait for more data. If the race is too close, we won’t project. A new rule in place is that ABC News will not project a race if there’s less than 1 percentage margin between the candidates.”

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Posted by Michele at November 2, 2004 05:37 AM | TrackBack
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