Fox News Channel called what may turn out to have been the key state in the U.S. presidential election at 9:22 p.m. East Coast, declaring Ohio had gone to Democrat Barack Obama and quoting Republicans who had said there was "no clear path to victory" for them without the state.
CNN called Ohio for Senator Obama 15 minutes later.
Other contested states that could sway the outcome of the election were still in play at the time, including Virginia and North Carolina. But with the Ohio outcome determined, news coverage on the two biggest cable news networks increasingly was based on the assumption that Republican John McCain would need a miracle to win.
When CNN called Ohio for Sen. Obama, the network's projected electoral vote tally gave the Democrats 194 with Senator McCain standing at 69. Simultaneously, Fox News put the total at 200 for Sen. Obama and 90 for Sen. McCain.
Once Fox News called Ohio for Sen. Obama, its coverage began including more references to a presumed Democratic victory. At 10:07 p.m., the network quoted McCain campaign sources saying that they acknowledged it was virtually mathematicaly impossible for their candidate to win the needed 270 electoral votes to be elected president.
By 10:44 p.m., an Obama victory became more certain when Fox called Virginia for the Democrat.
Shortly after 11 p.m., the news networks called the election for president-elect Obama.
(Editor: Gilbert. Updated 8:10 p.m. West Coast.)
Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/tvweek/News/~3/442803423/fox_news_calls_key_election_st.php
Posted
Tue, Nov 4 2008 9:15 PM
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