US TV vows election night caution

Bush has the backing of California governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar

US TV networks have vowed to take a cautious approach to calling the result of this year's presidential election.

The networks' credibility was badly damaged in 2000 when they initially named Al Gore as the new president, then later retracted the announcement.

One lesson, they say, is that it is better to label events "too close to call", rather than name the wrong man.

"That definitely is our mantra - get it right. We don't need to be first," said CBS network executive Linda Mason.

CBS newsreader Dan Rather recently apologised for a false broadcast

NBC called Florida for Al Gore at 1949 EST on 7 November 2000, making it look like he was headed for a big win. It was followed in minutes by similar announcements on CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox.

However, two hours later, CNN became the first to retract its prediction for Gore, changing Florida back to "too close to call."

Fox then became the first network to call Florida, and hence the election, for Bush at 0216 EST. The other four networks quickly followed.

All the networks were later to retract this prediction too, as the election descended into legal wrangles and recounts.

Moore was an unofficial speaker at the four-day Democratic convention

As this year's US presidential race between Republican George W Bush and Democrat John Kerry comes to a close, all the major networks are vowing election night caution.

"We are very aware of how messed up it was in 2000, and we don't want that to happen again," said Ms Mason.

Increased communication

"We want the public to view us with trust ... so we're going to be very careful about what we say."

In a bid for accuracy and increased communication, CBS has moved its decision desk into its election night studio.

In contrast, Fox and NBC have decided to isolate their decision desk to protect their teams from being influenced by external TV reports.

Nonetheless, all the networks have announced greater confidence in their ability to report the current presidential election, thanks to an improved voting system.