Media tries to re-adjust after Florida

WASHINGTON - The nation's top TV executives said yesterday they have made changes, including self-limits on calling elections, to restore viewer confidence after the networks' miscall of the Florida presidential race.

The media representatives, speaking to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, agreed with many lawmakers that establishment of a uniform poll closing time would remove concerns that calling elections in Eastern states might influence voters in the West where polls are still open.

Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the committee chairman, said he called the hearing to examine flaws in the statistical models used by the networks that he said favored the Democrats. But he said he saw "no evidence of intentional bias."

Those testifying included the news heads of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, The Associated Press and Voter News Service. VNS is the consortium formed by the networks and AP in 1993 to do exit polling and actual vote counts.

Some of the news chiefs said that while there was no credible evidence that early calls affected voters, they would no longer make projections until all the polls in a state were closed.

They urged Congress to enact legislation being sponsored by Tauzin and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to make poll closing times uniform around the nation.

Louis D. Boccardi, president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press, questioned whether Congress was overstepping First Amendment bounds.

"To put it more plainly, we believe that such an official government inquiry into essentially editorial matters is inconsistent with the First Amendment values that are fundamental to our society."