CBS News Forms Election Panel

(CBS)  CBS News has formed a high-level panel to investigate the internal procedures used to make race calls on Election Night 2000, it was announced by CBS News President Andrew Heyward. The panel will also make specific recommendations for how those procedures may be modified in the future to ensure the highest level of accuracy and reliability. The panel will commence its work immediately.

"Our relationship with our viewers, listeners and Internet users is based on the accuracy of the information CBS News reports," said Heyward. "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. Toward that end, I’m pleased to have assembled three individuals widely recognized for their knowledge, experience and integrity."

The three-member panel will be chaired by Linda Mason, who has been vice president of public affairs for CBS News, since 1992. Joining Mason on the committee is Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communication and the Walter H. Annenberg dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

The third member of the panel is Kathleen Frankovic, director of surveys and producer, CBS News, since 1977. She heads the unit of CBS News that collects and analyzes election data and conducts CBS News’ scientific polls. Frankovic is also the CBS News board member of Voter News Service, the consortium of major television networks and the Associated Press that conducts exit polling and gathers other election data.