Election Day Blogs: Love Them or Hate Them?

The Internet allows publications to publish 'round the clock, but some blogs jump the gun

The major news networks and other print publications pledged to use caution when projecting winners on Election Day. In fact, some networks seemed to drag their heels a bit when things were obviously swinging in one particular direction, but after the 2000 Florida debacle, no one wanted to pull a Dan Rather.

Professor Pavlik forwarded a story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about many major news outlets using blogs to report up-to-the-minute results of exit polls and other election data. This is a great way for newspapers, which don't have the ability to continuously update the public (like 24-hour cable channels), to stay in the game. During the 7 p.m. hour, the blog was updated 13 times.

Ironically, blogs came under intense criticism the next day. Exit-poll results from Florida and Ohio, the two most hyped battleground states, spread like wildfire on uber-popular blogs and regular Web sites such as Wonkette.com, Atrios.blogspot.com, Slate and the Drudge Report, which boasted that it receive it's highest traffic in nine and a half years. " Some of these sites cautioned readers not to make too much of the information," Wired News reports. But in an election as divisive as this one, with people on both sides so passionate about their preferred candidate, it must have been nearly impossible not to get excited over the latest results.

"I didn't have any real compunction about putting it up there," Alan Nelson, co-manager of The Command Post, told Wired News. "I didn't struggle with the decision, because I knew it was going to become a global news item within about 30 seconds. Our approach is: We post, you decide."

That's a fair statement, but some partisan bloggers may have picked certain data and overlooked contradictory information. And without analysis from election experts, readers might have put too much faith into the posts. "I think people believed them, and it's particularly the case with internet bloggers," said Kathy Frankovic, CBS News' polling director. "That's unfortunate because it sets up expectations that may or may not be met. I think it's a good exercise because it reminded people that early exit polls can be unreliable."

This is a clear-cut example of what can happen when bloggers act like journalists without taking the precuations that "real" or trained journalists would take. Obviously, seasoned pros have done the same thing in the past, but I think the stakes were higher this year. I still don't know what the answer is. I don't think regulation or mandatory ethics standards would work—or are desireable. But as more bloggers become independent journalists and the allure of scooping traditional media outlets increases, the issue will become more important.