Brill's on VNS election miscalls

kelley kwalker2 at gte.net
Fri Dec 22 12:37:48 PST 2000


VNS miscalled about 10 percent of the races it was hired to project, including the presidential race and a key Senate race.

VNS, and the television networks it works for, failed so spectacularly because it didn't factor in the massive shifts in how Americans vote. Brill's Content gained access to VNS documents, including screen grabs of the VNS numbers that resulted, first, in the calling of Florida for Vice-President Al Gore and, later, the calling of the state, and the presidency, for Texas governor George W. Bush. Network and VNS officials have been predictably parsimonious with their comments, but the VNS documents, combined with interviews and transcripts of the networks' election-night coverage, explain how a multimillion-dollar project designed to serve the public ended up doing exactly the opposite.

http://www.brillscontent.com/2001feb/features/mnookin.shtml



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