Burned Before, Networks Prove Reluctant to Name Next President Early

Television network anchors weighed the shifting fortunes of Barack Obama and John McCain on Tuesday night, but two other names were on their minds: Al Gore and John Kerry. Painfully aware of having been thrown off course by exit-poll data in 2000 and 2004, the networks sought this time to balance caution with a concern that they not be beaten in the reporting of results by a competitor. But newer media — including the Web sites Slate, Huffington Post and The Page, a political site within Time.com — showed much less restraint, tweaking their electronic elders in the process. The networks — which dressed up their coverage with holograms (CNN) and virtual-reality sets (NBC) — had hoped to match the boldness of their counterparts on the Web by signaling an early winner. But as the first polls closed, they held back, saying that exit surveys and actual vote counts did not permit them to proclaim a victor.