Word: exits
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Internet: A landslide. This, at least, is the hopes of those renegade web journalists who plan to ignore the embargo on exit-poll results and post them as soon as they become available, while the TV networks sit on their hands. The bigger the win, the greater the margin by which Matt Drudge, say, can scoop Tom Brokaw. If winners start getting announced online early, expect pressure on TV to end-around the embargo by reporting the "news" of the leaks...
...Network TV news: An upset. See under "The Internet." Brokaw and the rest of his handcuffed colleagues would love nothing better than to see the Drudges of the world go online boldly and embarrassingly with exit-poll results that prove to be wrong. And if it's an exciting enough nail-biter of an upset to boost ratings, hey, that's gravy...
...brave folks in the media business. We don't generally send signals like this unless we have hidden reason to be confident. We know things, Peter Jennings, Jim Lehrer and I - specifically, we've had access since mid-afternoon to the results of nationwide exit polls. These polls aren't magic, but they're predictive. And our organizations have signed binding agreements not to reveal them before polls close...
...lessons from one of their own mistakes, but I'm beginning to worry that the Florida flip-flop means that they're going to spend next rest of the evening behaving - ick - responsibly. No skylarking, no premature calls, no leaps of prognostication: just patient waiting and discussion. After the exit polls burned them once, we may have to wait until Dan Rather counts the last absentee ballot himself until we get a call in the Sunshine State. The note of caution seems to have spread to the talking heads as well: Even predictable partisan battle-axes like Mike McCurry...
...finally, Most Apt Prophecy of the Evening: Jeff Greenfield, CNN "If Bush wins Florida, there could be some exit-pollers looking for a new job." Who knows? The new administration might well be glad to have them...