Word: wirth
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This alleged distortion of election returns is what the Telecommunications Subcommittee has been studying. The chairman. Rep. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.), sent a letter after the February 20 lowa caucuses to the presidents of the three major networks. In the letter, Wirth recommended that the networks show "restraint" in broadcasting election results before voters have cast their ballots. He also invited the network presidents to testify at hearings on the Monday preceding the New Hampshire primary, and the networks each sent a representative...
Both Connolly and the Congressional subcommittee understand some of the flaws of the present system. In his letter Wirth addressed the heart of the issue. "To put it simply, in scores, if not hundreds, of rooms where caucuses were occurring, Iowa voters were told what the results would be before and during their decision-making process...
...modern democracy. Do TV projections discourage voters favorable to the losing candidate from going to the polls? Do they also scare away voters favorable to the apparent winner by making them feel overconfident? Do voters for an underdog turn out early, and in large numbers, precisely because they share Wirth's and Connolly's opinion and hope to push their candidate to victory in spite of expectations...
This "second guessing" effect of polls lies at the heart of the problem and Wirth alludes to it--perhaps inadvertently--that the first projection in Iowa. by CBS News, was broadcast at 8:12 PM-18 minutes before the caucuses even began. The other two networks quickly followed. NBC a few minutes later and ABC at 8.46. Significantly, these projections differed radically from the ranking of just the day before...
...Thus Wirth and Connolly misplace their criticism. If the voters who said weeks ago that they would vote for Mondale actually did on election day, the projections would have been borne out, as they partially were in Iowa. It is somewhat perverse to blame the press, even in part, for Mondale's failure in the Granite State. It's like saying that predicting the truth turns the truth into...