rssDingell Urges Network Restraint Tomorrow
Monday, November 03, 2008 at 6:23 pm
- 2 Comments
Hoping to prevent the election-coverage debacle that marred the 2000 presidential race, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) is urging the major television networks to hold off on naming the winner of tomorrow’s contest until the polls have closed — nationwide.
“When television stations call elections based on the results in a few Eastern States,” Dingell wrote last week to the heads of the major networks and cable news stations, “voter turnout elsewhere in the nation could potentially be lower than it would otherwise have been. This can affect the results of the presidential election, and have a dramatic impact on other contests for elected office as well.”
Dingell, a 54-year Washington veteran, seemed to link network restraint with patriotic duty. “Such a fair and judicious approach,” he said, “will allow the elections to play out as they may, without any unintended influence by the media, and is in the best interests of the country.”
It’s a nice thought. There’s just one problem: These media outlets are profit-driven businesses. They race for ratings, and “the best interests of the country” are not much of an impediment. How else to explain Bill O’Reilly and “Dancing With the Stars?”
Indeed, despite Dingell’s well-intentioned entreaty, the smart money says that this contest will be called at the first sign of a victor.
2 Comments
Comment posted November 4, 2008 @ 10:26 am
Oh if only this could actually come to pass…and pigs would also fly. It is a very well intentioned plea but we all know that the mainstream media have a long tradition of playing god. The long-term consequences of their actions are irrelevant to them. They will merely publish a “correction” in some obscure location and a week later the American public will have forgotten about it and moved on. The only way a change will occur is by the public insisting on the change in tactics, or by enacting legislation prohibiting speculation on probable outcomes of a national election. However, this will probably be contested as infringing on first ammendment rights.
Comment posted November 4, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
Oh if only this could actually come to pass…and pigs would also fly. It is a very well intentioned plea but we all know that the mainstream media have a long tradition of playing god. The long-term consequences of their actions are irrelevant to them. They will merely publish a “correction” in some obscure location and a week later the American public will have forgotten about it and moved on. The only way a change will occur is by the public insisting on the change in tactics, or by enacting legislation prohibiting speculation on probable outcomes of a national election. However, this will probably be contested as infringing on first ammendment rights.
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