VNS DOA?

Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times reports this morning that the television news networks are leaning toward pulling the plug on the Voter News Service (VNS). This is something that the nets should have done long ago but didn't (for all the usual stupid corporate reasons). VNS's performance on election night 2002 was even worse than its dreadful effort of 2000.

The question now is whether the Network Suits will (a) throw open the bidding to the widest possible vendor pool (IBM, MSFT, SUNW would all be strong bidders) or (b) continue to promulgate the old-boy CBS News Election Unit network. The answer will almost certainly be option "b."