Election Coverage

A national election has always been high drama, but it is also becoming a good show. If so, it is due to television, which has accustomed voters to a panoply of gadgetry, punditry and minute-by-minute scoring to a degree unequaled in the past. Where else can the voter see the uncertain candidate of the early evening, the beamish victor of midnight, the sour loser of the early morning facing the ordeal by camera with his character showing?

It is also one of the few times when the networks are in direct, visible competition on the same story, and all of them committed bigger sums than ever to the one-night stand. NBC spent an estimated $1,000,000 to $2,500,000, CBS roughly the same, and ABC, under the goading of its new vice president, Jim Hagerty, had boosted its outlay to $800,000.

As the networks recognize, the stakes are impalpable but high. Thus when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley scored for NBC in 1960, NBC magically swept past CBS to become the top network in most other respects as well. This year. Huntley and Brinkley were again perched on their high platform, but they appeared to have been incarcerated up there for 24 months. Brinkley's celebrated eye for the wry seemed a little bloodshot. "Now let's check the RCA 501 computer, which has just had its 9:30 feeding," he wried. It was a sort of amusing remark--but somehow not as fresh as it was two years ago, when he said: "Our 501 has just had its 2 o'clock feeding of warm election statistics."

Open Intercom. That fairly well symbolized the trouble with NBC this year. The network's "Dewline" tabulation--a system that stationed NBC stringers in hundreds of voting districts--was swift and often ahead of the competition. At 7:35 p.m., for instance, NBC had 25% of the Connecticut senatorial vote, while CBS had only 15% and ABC 8%. But the commentary of NBC's public-affairs stars, from Huntley and Brinkley to Merrill Mueller, Frank McGee, Sander Vanocur, John Chancellor et al., lacked yeast. Brinkley may have had something when he said that the computer was likely to replace them all.

CBS was the most interesting. Anchorman Walter Cronkite never cronked better, their Precinct Profile Analysis matched NBC's Dewline, and there was an easygoing rapport in the air as Cronkite nonchalantly tossed the ball to Eric Sevareid, Harry Reasoner, David Schoenbrun or Charles Collingwood. ABC hugely improved its coverage and managed to run a poor third, giving too much time to dull human analysis while the network's computer was failing to get a word in edgewise.

There were some general shortcomings. Recapitulations of early defeats and victories were either scarce or nonexistent. This was partly the result of all three networks' New York-based parochialism. NBC noted Rockefeller's victory in New York as early as 7:30 and left it almost unmentioned thereafter, forgetting that at that time it was still only 5:30 Mountain time and many viewers had not even gotten home from work. California viewers, flipping on their sets after dinner around 9 o'clock (midnight in New York), had a hard time finding out who had won in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Whispering Brain. The real heroes of the night were, in the end, the computers. Programmed to understand the significance of voting patterns, and focused on key precincts, the machines stood firm in the face of contrary superficial evidence. Where reporters of old might have said breathlessly, "It looks like Swogbottle in Idaho, he has an 80,000-vote lead," computers note that he didn't show enough strength in Boise to carry the rest of the state and kiss Swogbottle goodbye.

Some viewers objected. On the strength of electronic projections, the NBC "Decision Desk" and its CBS counterpart were passing out Senate seats and governorships early, creating the illusion that television had seized national power. But the computers were deadly accurate.

CBS's handsome, well-groomed IBM 1410 was clearly the champion at this game. At 10:05 p.m. E.S.T., 1410 swallowed two names and two numbers--George Romney, with 236,000 recorded votes, and John Swainson, with 310,000, in Michigan's gubernatorial race--and flatly declared that Romney would be the next Governor. At 10:10. ABC said, "It's going to be extremely close in Michigan. Predictions are fifty-fifty." At 10:17, NBC was only willing to say: "It's neck and neck in Michigan." Having scored standing up, CBS kicked the extra point at 10:55, when, on camera, they stuck a wire in Pat Brown's ear in California and the giant computer in New York whispered to him: "It looks like Brown."

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