3
2002 Election Night Media Coverage: Comparative Framing Analyses
of the Voter News Service Exit Poll Results
Overview
National newscasts of mid-term election night coverage is typically characterized
by rapid predictions based on the day’s exit poll results and the urge to be first to predict
contest winners in an intense market-driven news environment. Normally, national
television anchors and sources quickly dispense their predictions of the evening’s
winners and losers with a high degree of confidence. Such confidence is illustrative of
CBS anchor Dan Rather’s comments during the first hour of 2000 election night, “. . . if
we say somebody’s carried a state, you can pretty much take it to the bank, book it, that
that’s true” (Wardle et al, 2001, p. 2308). This confidence had been previously based on
the Voter News Service’s (VNS) exit poll results and the individual network’s “decision
desks” as to when to call a particular state’s race.
The errors in reporting the outcomes of the 2000 presidential election brought exit
poll data under scrutiny from VNS consortium members, as well as other media
professionals, a Congressional hearing, and academicians. In what media professionals
generally term a “news disaster,” discussions of flawed reporting are increasing (Sumpter
and Braddock, 2002).
Between election night 2000 and 2002, VNS decided to completely upgrade its
30-year-old system in order to be fully functional for the 2004 presidential election night
coverage. VNS had hoped to have the new software system partially functional in time
for the 2002 mid-term election night coverage. In an AP interview VNS Executive
Director Ted Savglio felt the system for counting the actual vote in each state was in
good shape for the November 5, 2002 election day. Savaglio did caution that, “We are
Convention