Facing an Election Night Clamor

The media are gearing up for election night, the finale of the year’s biggest story. It’s a chance to regain some credibility — presuming, of course, that television networks and other news organizations get their state-by-state projections right. They all say they will, still mindful of the mistakes made in 2000, when the networks prematurely called Florida for Al Gore and then George W. Bush. The same precautions that were put in place after 2000 will be in place again on November 6. Different this time will be the level of noise on the Web, where armchair and professional pundits alike will react to the election results in real time.