Date: 15th November 2000

After The Fiasco, The Probe


CBS, like other networks embarrassed by election-night miscalls, announced Tuesday that it has formed "a high-level panel" to investigate the matter and to recommend procedures to ensure that such gaffes will not be repeated.

The three-woman panel will be headed by CBS News exec Linda Mason, who recently was responsible for updating and revising the CBS News Standards manual. The other two members will be Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Kathleen Frankovic, CBS News' director of surveys, whose unit analyzes election data.

In a statement, CBS News chief Andrew Heyward said, "Our relationship with our viewers, listeners and Internet users is based on the accuracy of the information CBS News reports. We owe it to the public and to ourselves to determine how and why we made mistakes on election night and to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Source: Studio Briefing