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US Agency Asked to Investigate TV Election Calls
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission was asked on Wednesday to investigate four major U.S. television networks for awarding Florida to Democrat Al Gore before the polls closed in the state on Election Day.
Smithwick & Belendiuk, a small law firm that represents radio, television, telephone and other communications clients before the FCC, filed a five-page complaint against the ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox networks questioning whether they subverted the public interest in making their calls.
Some U.S. lawmakers have said the announcement by the networks about Florida may have led some Americans to skip voting.
"Something went wrong. Let's find out what that something is and let's fix it," Arthur Belendiuk, one of the firm's founders, told Reuters in an interview.
"It may have been nothing more than an innocent mistake but you had all the major news organizations using one source for their information," he said.
Belendiuk said the firm was making the complaint on its own behalf. "I'm not working for any group," he said, adding the firm does not represent any of the networks.
"I don't think this is a political issue. I think this is an issue about reporting things that are critical to our country," Belendiuk said.
A spokesman for the FCC, which reviews the public interest obligations of broadcasters, declined to comment on the complaint. Typically the agency will review a complaint to determine whether it merits further investigation.
"In a democracy, dependent upon the fundamental rights of free speech and press, the FCC cannot authenticate the news that is broadcast nor should it try to do so," the agency said in a June 1997 policy statement.
At 7:50 p.m. EST on Nov. 7 (0050 GMT on Nov. 8), less than an hour after most of the polls closed in Florida, some network news programs declared Gore the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes over Republican George W. Bush.
About two hours later, the networks retracted the projection and put the 25 votes in the undecided category and said incorrect data from Voter News Service, the consortium of the major networks and the Associated Press, had led to their earlier call.
Western parts of Florida are in the central time zone and the polls closed an hour later than most of the state.
"To be the first with a call in Florida means ratings and the calculus of ratings easily translates into revenues," said the complaint filed with the FCC. "Thus it appears that the networks subverted the public interest for a few extra dollars of revenues."
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co. (DIS), CBS is owned by Viacom Inc. (VIA), NBC is owned by General Electric Co. (GE), Fox is owned by News Corp Ltd. (NCP) and CNN is owned by Time Warner Inc. (TWX).
"It's a little premature at this point to comment, reviews of Voter News Service and at each of the networks are still ongoing," said ABC News spokesman Jeff Schneider, adding that the network has already adopted a new policy in which it will not call a state until all the polls there are closed.
"It's important to note that on election night, (news anchor) Peter Jennings did not make a call until after all the polls closed in the entire state of Florida," he said. Representatives from the other networks were not immediately available for comment.
Florida's 25 electoral votes have become the lynchpin to determining whether Bush or Gore will be the 43rd president of the United States.
The major networks, hours after putting Florida in the undecided column, declared Bush the winner of that state's 25 electoral votes early on Nov. 8 but again had to retract that call because the final numbers showed the race too close to call.
"I distinguish the first call at 7:50 p.m. when the polls were open from the call at 2 a.m. -- the call at 2 a.m. was harmless," said Belendiuk.
In the complaint the firm asked the FCC to investigate:
-- What led to the first call of Florida for Gore?
-- Did the networks intentionally distort the exit poll data?
-- Did the networks try to generate higher ratings?.
After completing the investigation, Belendiuk urged the FCC to issue a policy statement to guide broadcasters in the future as well as determine when it is appropriate for broadcasters to announce predicted results of contested elections.
"If the commission determines that the networks intentionally or recklessly broadcast false information to the American public it should take appropriate action up to and including disqualifying those responsible from holding FCC broadcast licenses," the complaint said.
The FCC policy statement on broadcast journalism also noted that the agency is barred from censoring broadcast material but broadcasters "may not engage in intentional and deliberate falsification of the news," and the regulator can act to protect the public interest if it receives "extrinsic evidence of such rigging or slanting."
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