The five major television news networks have blamed inaccurate exit poll data for the series of false projections that left the country wondering who would be president and badly bruised media credibility.

After ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News told viewers they believed a majority of Florida voters had chosen Al Gore '69 to be president, the state was put back in the 'too close to call' category.

And when a later call was made in Bush's favor, the networks were forced to rescind their predictions again.

The Voter News Service (VNS), a consortium of the five major news networks and the Associated Press, provides the exit polling data. On election days, it relies upon 40,000 poll-takers at key precincts throughout the country to paint a composite portrait of the nation's voting.

Statisticians and computer scientists work alongside demographers at VNS's New York headquarters, comparing exit polls to actual early returns. If they match to a degree--and if the match is verified by computer analysis--then VNS will project an outcome.

The moment-by-moment account of what happened Tuesday night and early Wednesday plays like a television drama.

At about 7:48 p.m., VNS sent a short coded message to the networks, whose own consultants, in turn, crunched the numbers.

At 7:50, NBC was first to declare Gore the winner in Florida.