Networks Vary in Aggressiveness on Iowa

[peterh]

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-iowa-tv,0,5604155.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

NEW YORK -- The television networks covered the kickoff to the 2004 presidential campaign in Iowa Monday with caucus cams and caucus clocks -- and widely different degrees of aggressiveness in characterizing the surprising results.

ABC, CBS and NBC confined their prime-time coverage to live cut-ins during breaks in entertainment programming, while cable networks Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN were on the story full-time.

CBS, at 9:24 p.m. EST, was the first network to declare Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry the victor in Iowa. Dan Rather was careful to note that the network was basing its call on actual caucus results, not polling.

That distinction is important because Monday was the first key test in a new polling operation set up by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and The Associated Press. The National Elections Pool conducted entrance polling in Iowa and also depended on vote-counting from the AP.


By far, Fox News Channel was the most aggressive TV network in how it used the entrance poll to characterize the developing story. Five minutes past eight, Fox's Mort Kondracke was referring to "Lazarus Kerry" and Bill Kristol was writing Dick Gephardt's political obituary.






These guys at fox are the epitome of white trash…..synonymous with GOP….

[cprise]

1. Lazarus Kerry... He only looks dead!

ROTFL!