All news agencies were a bit shy in 1952 in calling the Presidential race after what happened in 1948. But by 1956 it was clear very early that Eisenhower would win in a landslide. Notice that then-CBS Evening News anchor Douglas Edwards was relegated to secondary status for election night coverage.
Unfortunately part of this history was omitted. It was reported CBS actually had the results from the UNIVAC hours earlier but was concerned the new computer made an error and did not want the network looking bad. When the vote count clearly indicated Eisenhower would win, CBS released the UNIVAC projection. What alarmed yet excited people later was the accuracy in the projection from the final totals. "And that's the way it is."
That UNIVAC was fake, the real one was too large for the studio.
SemNome84 1 month ago
All news agencies were a bit shy in 1952 in calling the Presidential race after what happened in 1948. But by 1956 it was clear very early that Eisenhower would win in a landslide. Notice that then-CBS Evening News anchor Douglas Edwards was relegated to secondary status for election night coverage.
observer9670 1 month ago
Lucky it went right, it could have been disasterous advertising for univax lol
RetroGamerVX 4 months ago
Unfortunately part of this history was omitted. It was reported CBS actually had the results from the UNIVAC hours earlier but was concerned the new computer made an error and did not want the network looking bad. When the vote count clearly indicated Eisenhower would win, CBS released the UNIVAC projection. What alarmed yet excited people later was the accuracy in the projection from the final totals. "And that's the way it is."
MemphisCTGroups 10 months ago
@MemphisCTGroups Yeah I heard that story also, this was in the original 1952 election, I guess by 56 they had a bit more confidence in the machine.
yakacm 4 months ago
Walter Cronkite introducing the UNIVAC's prediction of the 1956 presidential election. A brief, rare clip.
specialmatrix 2 years ago