MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
On this Election Day, a day for which news organizations have spent months preparing, predicting a neck-and-neck battle for the presidency that could take days to call, TV news executives who make those calls say they're ready-ish. Here's NPR's David Folkenflik.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: It used to be you knew what was ahead when you turned to TV news on election night - gorgeous graphics and nerd-driven data analysis, a map defined by blues and reds and pinks and light blues. The only predictable thing this year is that things aren't predictable. I asked longtime news executive Rebecca Blumenstein if she was confident.
REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN: I would not say confident. We're all nervous.
FOLKENFLIK: Blumenstein is president for editorial at NBC News.
BLUMENSTEIN: We're preparing, and we're prepared as best as we can, and we're really committed to - you know, to covering the story whatever unfolds.
FOLKENFLIK: And who could forget what unfolded just four years ago in November 2020?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BRET BAIER: OK, timeout. This is a big development.
MARTHA MACCALLUM: Yeah.
BAIER: The Fox News decision desk is calling Arizona for Joe Biden.
FOLKENFLIK: The fallout from that projection convulsed the pro-Trump network for years. At the time, fierce protests by Trump supporters broke out around election offices in Arizona and elsewhere.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Still, it's making for a very tense situation for the second night in a row. Last night, poll workers had to be escorted to their cars by police.
FOLKENFLIK: The Trump campaign sought in court to overturn Biden's wins.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Well, the Trump campaign filed more than a dozen lawsuits alleging voter fraud and other issues.
FOLKENFLIK: All culminating on January 6, 2021, in an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT GLOVER: Multiple Capitol injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) USA, USA, USA.
FOLKENFLIK: Those are the things viewers saw last time. For all that, Blumenstein says, the network is primed for prime time.
BLUMENSTEIN: We have really, over the past two years, made a sincere effort to get out there around the country and to understand the electorate.
FOLKENFLIK: So just as in decades past, NBC and its rivals will have teams of pollsters and analysts on their live broadcasts in glitzy studios - the be-khakied (ph) Kornackis, so to speak - and reporters in the field to gauge public sentiment. The new normal, however, involves something more, with teams of journalists well-versed in local and state election laws fanned out across those key counties and swing states to monitor disputes over vote counts and possible legal challenges. David Chalian is the political director at CNN.
DAVID CHALIAN: It was clear in the lead-up to November of 2020 that former President Trump was laying the groundwork to call into question the legitimacy of the results. He wasn't shy about indicating that.
FOLKENFLIK: He says the network drew a lesson from that.
CHALIAN: That was going to require us to be ever more transparent about what we know about the vote count at any given moment.
FOLKENFLIK: Oh, a public service reminder - the media has no legal role, no constitutional role in determining the vote. It's just how so many Americans experience it, including, to a great degree, the candidates themselves.
David Folkenflik, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
