FCC refuses to probe networks' election call

April 9, 2001

Web posted at: 3:07 PM EDT (1907 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission has refused to investigate the four television networks for "calling" Florida to Democrat Al Gore before the polls closed in the state on Election Day, according to an order released Monday.

A small Washington law firm filed in November a five-page complaint seeking an investigation into the practices of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox to determine whether they subverted the public interest by initially projecting Gore won what turned out to be the decisive state.

After network flip-flopping projecting a winner in Florida and weeks of legal wrangling between the campaigns of Gore and now-President Bush, the Republican won the state's 25 Electoral College votes and entered the White House.

"The mere fact that the Networks incorrectly projected that Al Gore would receive Florida's electoral votes is not a sufficient basis to initiate such an investigation," the FCC said in an April 3 order made available on Monday.

The FCC can act to protect the public interest if it receives sufficient evidence that broadcasters are intentionally or deliberately falsifying the news.

Some lawmakers had argued the networks' call that Gore had won Florida at 7:50 p.m. EST Nov. 7 led some Americans not to vote in the western part of the state, which is in the central time zone and an hour behind the part operating on Eastern Standard Time.

The networks retracted the projection and eventually put the 25 votes in the undecided category, saying incorrect data from Voter News Service, the consortium of the major networks, CNN and the Associated Press, had led to their initial call.

"It's disappointing but about par for the course," said Arthur Belendiuk of Smithwick & Belendiuk, the firm which petitioned the FCC for the investigation. "They took the position that they have no obligation to review it and that was always their right."

He said he did not have any immediate plans to take additional action.

"We don't know" what happened with the initial calls by the networks "and the further answer is the FCC didn't look into it," Belendiuk said. ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co. , CBS is owned by Viacom Inc. , NBC is owned by General Electric Co. , Fox is owned by News Corp Ltd. and CNN is owned by AOL Time Warner Inc.

-- Anonymous, April 09, 2001