DON’T expect the network news presidents to show up with hoods over their faces when they’re called to testify next month before a congressional committee to explain what went wrong on Election Night.
It’s really not going to be that kind of hearing. Although the execs may feel a twinge of embarrassment, the heat generated way back on Nov. 7 will largely be dissipated by the time the one-day hearing convenes in late January, after George W. Bush has been inaugurated.
Last week, no one at the networks could say who will be sent to testify, since no invitations have been received and no date set.
Be that as it may, the hearing will definitely happen. That’s the word from the office of Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who declared two days after Election Day that the House Telecommunications Subcommittee he chairs will get to the bottom of the Election Night projection debacle some time after the smoke clears.
According to Tauzin’s spokesman, Ken Johnson, the congressman expects the top news executives from ABC, CBS, NBC (including MSNBC), CNN, Fox News Channel, the Associated Press and the Voter News Service all to be in attendance to take questions from his committee, which has oversight of the Federal Communications Commission and, therefore, has something to say about how the TV industry comports itself.
Not that the committee would ever dream of drawing up legislation to rein in the networks on future election nights.
On that point, Johnson was clear. “Let me be as blunt as I can be,” he said on the phone Friday. “We are not going to pursue legislation that would prevent networks from making presidential predictions. We are not going to pursue legislation that would prevent networks from doing exit polling. But we are going to demand that the networks act responsibly when it comes to covering presidential elections.”
While falling far short of actual legislation, the Tauzin committee will push the networks to promise not to project winners until all the precincts in a state are closed. That’s a change from a 1985 agreement which allowed the networks to project winners as long as a majority of the precincts were closed.
“The wording back in 1985 was ‘a majority of the precincts,’ and the idea was to give the networks some discretion,” Johnson said. “We’re not gonna give ’em any discretion in the future.”
If that’s the aim of the hearing, then the goal has already been partially met: Fox News, ABC and NBC have all stated in writing that they won’t project winners in future elections until all of a state’s precincts are closed.
CNN and CBS are waiting until they complete internal reviews of what happened on Election Night before they agree to join the others.
How will the hearing play on TV, if at all? Ironically, the witnesses themselves will have more to say about that than anyone else, since they’re the ones who will decide how their respective networks will cover it.
As for Tauzin, he’s vying to become chairman of the powerful House Commerce Committee. Toward that end, he can’t go wrong pulling a group of naughty news execs into a congressional hearing room for a public spanking.