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TEXAS. In 1978 he became Texas' first Republican Governor in more than 100 years, after spending $7.2 million. So Bill Clements, 65, an oil-rich spendthrift, dropped $12.5 million this time, and expected a no-sweat reelection. Then, as his election-night party started, ABC News began predicting that Democrat Mark White would be the winner. Gasped one partygoer: "You're kidding...
...Over at ABC, meanwhile, Ted Koppel divined that President Reagan's economic policies were clearly the issue, and that if Democrats gained even 15 seats in the House, "Reaganomics is going to be in trouble." Frank Reynolds said repeatedly that "Democrats need only five victories to control the Senate," sounding as though he really anticipated that result. David Brinkley, playing the nightlong role of pinprick to his teammates' balloons, muttered his doubts that mild changes of complexion in Congress would much affect what measures were enacted...
...compound the confusion, the networks varied widely on when they were ready to predict a particular outcome. Indeed, NBC lurched into proclaiming the re-election of Republican Governor James Thompson of Illinois barely an hour after the polls closed; ABC and CBS prudently held off all night, and the race was not settled for Thompson until week's end. In at least one contest, all three networks were wrong: they labeled Representative John Hiler, an Indiana Republican, the loser of a seat he ended up keeping...
...vote victory over Tom Bradley. Indeed, the Los Angeles Times ran a frontpage story on election morning about the lineup of local politicians vying to succeed Bradley as the city's mayor. The San Francisco Chronicle's first election extra bannered: BRADLEY WIN PROJECTED. While ABC was predicting Deukmejian's victory, its affiliate stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco were using exit polls of their own to call the race for Bradley instead. In the Senate contest, several affiliates used local exit polls to forecast a victory for Democrat Jerry Brown, who actually lost to Republican...
Whatever the merits of the coverage, the victories that really interested NEC, ABC and CBS were not reported on Tuesday night but on Thursday, in the Nielsen ratings. They were a surprise: ABC, which pioneered the use of electronic whizbangery but which seemed low key, almost uninterested on Tuesday night, won with an average 11.8% of all U.S. television households. CBS, despite Rather's supercharged manner and a dazzling array of computer-generated graphics, was second, with 11.5%. NBC, with a presentation about halfway between CBS's dazzle and ABC's drowse (and with a stadium-type...