It’s no job for the news biz

I did not vote for Donald Trump, but neither did I or anyone else ever support a law giving TV news outlets the power to call elections. And why would we?

The media got many races wrong in their pre-vote polling. Maine Sen. Susan Collins was supposed to lose her race by a wide margin, but she trounced her opponent! And Trump was supposed to lose in Florida, but he won handily. I could go on.

The media has a right to make predictions, but that’s all they are — predictions. And some argue they shouldn’t even make predictions because they can mislead people to believe a candidate is more likely to win or lose. People should not be coerced by propaganda to vote against their interests.

Predictions are one thing — calling elections is a whole other bucket of chads.

TV news has no legal authority to declare a winner in a race for dog-catcher, much less president of the United States. It is a forprofit industry with no accountability to the public. It’s like a parking lot attendant taking your keys away when he finds out your license is suspended. He might be correct that you shouldn’t be driving, but he has no authority to take your keys away.

And there’s no pressure on the media to get it right because the public can’t exactly sue CNN for “negligent election calling” if they get it wrong.

It doesn’t matter that TV news got it right this time. The issue is whether they should ever be in a position to get it wrong. They shouldn’t. A government official should make the call because elections are the government’s business.

No doubt TV news executives believe the industry is trustworthy enough to be given such a great responsibility, but a recent study from the Knight Foundation and Gallup found 73% of those surveyed said media bias is a “major problem.” If the public believes the media is not objective, it should not be trusted to determine our most important election.

Even though the election results will not likely change no matter what happens in the various venues where Trump has lodged legal challenges, the fact that the media made a determination many see as illegitimate will lead to even more people touting conspiracy theories and embracing the “fake news” mantra. Even the best news outlets with the highest integrity will suffer, and we don’t need that right now. We need public confidence in our democracy and in the Fourth Estate.

It may not be a silver lining but election 2020 will probably inspire more than a few people to re-read George Orwell’s “1984.”

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it.” — “1984” by George Orwell.

Ap fiLe REPORTING LIVE! Media organizations set up outside the White House on Nov. 4. The Associated Press and the major TV networks have long played a major role in announcing the victor in elections based on their own data. There is no national elections commission to tell the world who wins on election day, unlike in many other countries.