Word: nbc
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...with a knockout eleven seconds into the first round. At 6 p.m. E.S.T., an hour before Election Night coverage got under way at the three networks, CBS News President Bill Leonard confidently collected a bet from a Carter backer, proclaiming, "It's gonna be an early night." At NBC, John Chancellor signed on at 7:00 with the prediction that "Ronald Reagan will win a very substantial victory tonight, very substantial." In fact, by the time ABC made the night's first official call-Reagan in Indiana, at 6:30, one minute ahead of NBC, two ahead...
...something funny was happening on the 24-ft. by 14-ft. plastic and Plexiglas map at NBC, behind which a team of electricians waited to flick switches that would illuminate 7,324 light bulbs-red ones for Carter, blue for Reagan, white for Anderson. States were turning peacock blue faster than John Chancellor and his team could announce them. Looking over his shoulder at the epidemic of blue, David Brinkley observed: "It's beginning to look like a suburban swimming pool." Other NBC staffers took to calling it "Lake Reagan." New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware and South Carolina (18 electoral...
...reason for this lecture was evident soon enough at all three networks: 90 minutes after the NBC call, President Carter walked into his Washington campaign headquarters and conceded defeat. Carter evidently was less cautious in recognizing reality than Cronkite. CBS finally gave the election to Reagan...
What had happened? NBC had pulled the rug out from under its competitors by secretly switching the rules for its Election Night victory calls. While ABC and CBS analysts cautiously awaited voting results from their 7,000 sample precincts, NBC executives decided to use their exit polls as a basis for calling many states rather than wait for any real vote counts. NBC'S reasoning: in a landslide, there is no place for punctilio...
...evening wound down to the last few computer-generated graphic bumps and grinds, NBC's fast draw was drawing as much comment in certain quarters as the election itself. CBS News' Bill Leonard insisted, while sipping a Coke, that NBC's cannonball finish was "small beer." He added: "We all knew it was going to be a landslide. If one horse is a foot from the finish line and all the others have fallen down, calling the race then or waiting until he finishes is a technicality, perhaps. Did CBS tell you Carter was winning?" San Francisco...