Posted on 09/28/2003 5:33:24 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Broadcast journalism uses statistical projections to predict the outcome of the elections in the various states before the official results are available. The odds against error in a statistical prediction depend on the margin of error and the margin of victory. As data on voting accumulates and the number of unknown votes yet to be counted declines, the margin of error gradually shrinks--but goes to zero only when the official vote tally is announced. The margin of victory can be quite large or (as FL 2000 illustrates) can be quite small.Retrospect shows that the statistical reliability of the call of a state for Gore was in nearly every case much lower than that of the call of nearly every state for Bush. In the famous case of Florida, of course, broadcast journalism's first call was not merely of low statistical quality but actually erroneous. And yet, the following day journalism focused like a laser, not on that huge error but on the ultimately correct call by Fox News.
As Coulter points out, journalism's postmortem claim that the FNC call was an illegitimate attempt to affect the outcome can most sensibly be understood as an admission that their own premature 8pm call of FL for Gore (that the relatively premature call of almost every Gore state) was an illegitimate attempt to affect the outcome of the election in favor of Gore.
Journalism believes in the power of PR, and deployed that power as strongly as it dared in support of Gore. Yet Bush won. Above all the constituencies in the Democratic party, it is journalism which was most aggrieved by the rejection of its own god.
That presumes that journalism can be spoken of as an entity, that it is an Establishment. To say that is to deny that journalism is competitive. Journalism is famously competitive is certain ways--especially being the first out with a story--but in ways that matter like accuracy, journalists all "go along and get along." It is in the nature of an Establishment to deny its own existence while viciously defending its turf, and that is exactly how journalism behaves.
FNC breaks that mold, is willing to at least insinuate that the competition doesn't live up to its reputation.
Their agenda is propaganda, not journalism.
More are coming to see that, hence their decline.
The Clinton years demonstrated to me that, if the Democrats are accusing the GOP of doing "X", it most likely means that it is the Democrats who are, in fact, doing "X". Or, at the very least, it is what the Democrats would do if they were in the GOP's position.
They project their own misdeeds onto their opponents. There is a name for this kind of pathology. In the law, it is called "guilty"...
The press can't silence the homecoming troops, or those who were awake on 9-11, or millions of Iraqis with new free speech - or the internet, the will of the free people around the world.
Keep sharing the true, good stories with others. Click my Freepname. Today alone there are many supportive stories from the press - our conservative outlets, plus a good write-up on the raid from AP and SOD Rumsfeld's wise essay in the WSJ.
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