As Americans face a presidential election choice that seems to turn off many voters but yet is hugely important, media covering the campaign take their roles seriously and are taking great pains to make sure information is accurate, updated in a timely fashion and that coverage is about what voters are saying not just politicians.

Those were takeaways from representatives of ABC, CBS, CNN and the Associated Press tasked with political coverage at their outlets during a panel at The Business of TV News event in Washington on May 2.

Moderator Greta Brawner, executive producer for public affairs programming at C-SPAN, started by reading the headline from a new survey by the AP and the American Press Institute. "News organizations have trust issues," she said. About half of Americans in the survey said they were extremely or very concerned that news organizations will report inaccuracies or misinformation during the election, she said. Some 42% express worry that news outlets will use generative artificial intelligence to create stories. "One of the reasons for this is that people are less familiar with how journalism works," Brawner said.

The panelists all made clear that voters' views are central to their coverage, along with analysis of polls, campaign tactics and what the candidates are saying and doing, as David Chalian, VP and political director at CNN, explained. He said CNN boss Mark Thompson made clear soon after arriving that in addition to all of that "the critical component is putting the voters at the center of everything."

Ed O'Keefe, the CBS News senior White House and political correspondent, said that because the presidential candidates were decided so early and are so well known that "we're now much more curious to know who will make the ultimate decision, the voters" and much of the coverage is themed Listening to America.

ABC News deputy political director Averi Harper said "it has always been our longstanding motto, your voice, your vote. And that is about listening to voters." The network has reporters traveling the country and talking to voters all the time. "And those are voices that you see come up across our shows, across our platforms."

Harper also said, in regard to weeding out faked videos: "When we do stories about AI we have to label them very clearly, because we never want anyone who's viewing our stories, viewing our work, to get confused about what's real and what's fake."

Associated Press Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson, responding to a question about deciding who has won an election, said the AP is putting a lot of effort into being transparent about how races are called. "We've hired people right onto our decision team who are experts whose job is it to actually explain how we're doing that." Johnson spoke about efforts at "prebunking" misconceptions people might have about how elections work, including with a how-it-works series for AP members called "Our Very Complicated Democracy." 

Along with stressing their interest in voters' views, the panelists spoke about how careful their organizations are not to pass along misinformation or manipulated video, and that when stories are developing and facts change (or mistakes are made) that updates are made on air to clarify and correct the information promptly and fully. 

Chalian, Harper and O'Keefe also explained that in 2020 news organizations had to explain why it was important to wait until enough votes are counted to reliably call a race as won, Harper recalling the "red mirage" of some early counts indicating a Republican lead that were wiped out after Democratic votes (such as mailed-in ballots) were added in. This time around, media would be wise to be patient, again.

"Keep in mind that election day is in early November, but this process is not done until at least inauguration," O'Keefe said.

The Business of TV News was a daylong event produced by Future B2B's B+C, Multichannel News and Next TV.

HBO will debut its documentary series The Soul of America on Oct. 27, the network said Wednesday.

The documentary, based on Jon Meacham’s 2018 bestseller, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, looks at the the United States’ current political and historical moment by examining its past, said network officials. 

In addition to extensive interviews with Meacham, the film features insights from civil rights activist Donald Tamaki; actor and activist George Takei; civil rights attorney Dale Minami; civil rights activist Janice Wesley Kelsey; and late U.S. Representative and civil rights activist John Lewis.

Data analytics firm Lotame, which says it taps billions of anonymous online profiles, has looked at the digital behavior of millions of political TV watchers and suggests they are in something of a branding sweet spot for marketers targeting addressable advertising.

“As the 2020 election quickly approaches, and COVID restrictions are keeping people at home and in front of the television, political marketers have a good chance of engaging consumers through the biggest screen at home,” said Alexandra Theriault, chief customer officer at Lotame. “Knowing information like what other shows politically engaged viewers watch and what industries they are likely to work in, helps campaigns build a profile of what messaging might resonate best in the last months before ballots are cast.”

According to Lotame Panorama*, political TV watchers** are more likely to be heavy TV viewers and hold management positions in the IT industry. In addition to politics, they like "easy to watch" genres including travel shows, home and garden shows, variety, and game shows. They are less likely to watch genres like drama, science fiction and action shows.

Related: Analysis: Presidential Candidates Didn't Benefit from Last Week's TV Town Halls

IT professionals are the most likely to be political TV watchers (23%), followed by healthcare (14%) in the number two slot. Only 2% of those in the insurance industry are political TV watchers, while perhaps surprisingly given the political activism of some in Hollywood, only 1% of those in the media and entertainment industry were identified as political TV watchers.

The largest percentage of political TV watchers are in management positions (42%), followed by non-management jobs (27%), C-suite positions (19%), and board members and ownership (12%).

*"A suite of data enrichment solutions that use first-, second- and third-party data to create and analyze addressable audiences."

**Political TV watchers are defined as "people who have tuned-in to political TV networks, talk shows, debates, town halls, and congressional hearings."

The news media is under siege but its role in society has never been more important and needed than in today’s hyper-political environment, according to CNN news anchor Don Lemon.

“Everyday it’s like drinking from a fire hose of news … it is exhausting,” said Lemon, who serve as the keynote speaker Tuesday at the 32nd annual NAMIC Conference. “Everything has changed when it comes to this new world order and beyond in the media.”

Lemon, who anchors CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, said he never expected to experience the current level of vitriol and attacks directed at the mainstream news media when he first began his TV journalism career.

“It was never my intent to be fighting people who write and say the most vile and racist things about me on social media and television,” he said. “It was not what I intended [to see] that my profession would constantly be under attack by the Oval office and from masses of Americans. But let me tell you, I’m here for it and I’m ready to live up to that challenge.”

Lemon, the only African-American journalist currently hosting a primetime cable news show, said that right now is the most important time in recent history to be a journalist to serve as a reliable check and balance to often misleading and unreliable information coming from all corners of the political spectrum. He added it’s also a perilous time for reporters, pointing to the recent disappearance and suspected murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“In the context of this new world order of dramatic political, social, and unparalleled technological change, the role of media has never been more important, and it's also never been more dangerous,” Lemon said. "Foreign reporters in war zones, as well as domestic reporters and journalists like me in war zones of our own here at home, are facing angry people and the threats of violence.”

Lemon also said traditional news media outlets also face threats from social media, which often posts inaccurate news and information. “It is incumbent upon the owners and managers of those sites like Facebook and Twitter to do their due diligence, and it’s incumbent upon you and the rest of America to make sure that they do it,” he said.

CNN political commentator Van Jones will host a new bimonthly prime-time series on the network beginning in January.

CNN’s one-hour The Van Jones Show will build on Jones’ The Messy Truth town hall shows that aired on CNN throughout 2017 by speaking directly to voters across the country to explore the raw, emotional policy debates and culture wars taking place in America, according to the news network.

In addition to The Van Jones Show, CNN has greenlit the production of a second Jones-hosted series, which will focus on reconciliation, hope and redemption within the criminal justice system. The as-yet-named series will be developed in collaboration with Citizen Jones, a production company.

ESPN has been looking into the way politics has affected its viewership, and the network’s latest research indicates little impact.

A survey conducted May 3-7 by Langer Research Associates for ESPN found that about 64% of those responding believed ESPN was “getting it right” in terms of mixing sports news and political issues. About 10% said they had no opinion, and 8% said ESPN does not cover enough politics in its programming.

Related > Iger: ESPN’s Eyes Wide Open

ESPN said the survey found that the portion of viewers who see political bias in ESPN programming is unchanged since the survey was last conducted in October 2016.

Since the presidential election, numerous press reports have tied ESPN's declining subscriber count and lower ratings for its studio shows to a left-wing bias, indicated in part by the number of women and minorities it employs as anchors.

In May a study by research company Deep Root Analytics that found that Republican viewers were disproportionately tuning out ESPN.

Related > Live Sports Still Score Big-Time on Cable

In a blog post, ESPN said its study found that of those who see a bias, 30% said ESPN expresses a conservative viewpoint. And those who identify themselves as conservative or Republican rate ESPN higher than in October.

ESPN also noted that in 2016, for the third straight year, it was the highest-rate full-time cable network among adults and men in the 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 age brackets.

A year ago almost to the day, Showtime Networks chairman Matthew Blank announced he would be passing the CEO reins to network president David Nevins. Blank had hired Nevins — then the president of Imagine Television, responsible for such hits as Fox’s 24 and NBC’s Parenthood — in 2010 to oversee development of original programming for the premium service and to succeed him this past January, when he stepped down from the CEO role after more than 20 years.

Related:Chairman Likes Showtime’s Standing Amid TV’s Chaos: A Q&A With Matt Blank

By then, Nevins had already built a stable of successful, long-running original series, including the Emmy-winning Homeland and The Affair, Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex. As CEO, Nevins would be steering into a new digital age full of opportunities and potential pitfalls as the industry at large sorts out a new landscape that includes new over-the-top competition from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. On the cable homefront, Showtime must also to contend with Emmy darling HBO and rising player Starz for premium TV supremacy.

Nearly six months into Nevins’s term as CEO, Showtime is firing on all cylinders. The Jan. 17 debut of Billions drew its biggest audience ever for a freshman original series. The Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti-starrer, about an ego-driven billionaire and the ambitious U.S. attorney looking to take him down, finished its freshman run as the network’s most-watched series behind Homeland.

Nevins is high on the music-themed Roadies, debuting June 26, which chronicles the lives of stagehands who build and take down concert sets for rock ‘n’ roll bands. Showtime can also look forward to the much-anticipated 2017 return of director David Lynch’s drama series Twin Peaks.

Nevins is also spearheading Showtime’s continued push into digital, overseeing the rollout of the Showtime OTT service, available on Apple TV, Roku, Hulu, Amazon and other digital distribution platforms. Still, Showtime is building its success in a perilous TV marketplace where a lackluster performance from a high-profile series or a big breakout hit from a competitor could hit the network hard.

Nevins has his hands full guiding the fortunes of the premium programmer but took some time to discuss his strategy for Showtime’s future growth with Multichannel News, B&C and Next TV editorial director Mark Robichaux and MCN programming editor R. Thomas Umstead.

MCN:There’s been a lot of movement in the C-suite at Showtime lately. Is this a changing of the guard?

David Nevins: Matt hasn’t gone anywhere and is not going anywhere anytime soon, but sort of more and more of the daily decisions and budgeting and how we sort of organize ourselves is going through me. It’s been an orderly transition that’s been going on with Matt’s full support and kind of design, you know, going back probably three years.

I think it’s really working well and it’s a good moment for us. A lot of the trends in the business are favoring us right now.

MCN:How is your new OTT product doing?

DN: We’re about 10 months in. You can buy us on top of your Hulu subscription or through Apple or Roku and shortly thereafter Android, Google, and Amazon added us in a similar way as Hulu, and it’s been really working.

Our base business is, I think, as high as it’s ever been through our more traditional satellite/telco/cable distributors. So, there’s been no real cannibalization; we’re at an all time high in that business. And the more direct, sort of OTT business has really worked. It’s now becoming a pretty meaningful contributor to our revenue and it’s growing fast.

MCN:As the transition continues to more digital content, do you see that business rising and this linear side falling, or do you see incremental increases without losing linear?

DN: I don’t know what’s going to happen over time. I’m hoping for growth on both sides of the ledger. Thus far, we’ve seen growth on both sides of the ledger and we’re budgeting growth on both sides of the ledger for next year.

MCN:Do you think it’s a zero-sum game? Do you think there’s a limit, a ceiling, on the growth of over-the-top products and skinny bundles?

DN: There’s a de-bundling and then there’s going to be a re-bundling. And probably when there’s re-bundling, it will be good for us. We’ve taken a very agnostic position. Our attitude is we want to be sold in as many places as possible by as many sellers as possible.

MCN:How does that affect your relationship with the guys that brought you to the dance, the cable guys?

DN: I think they understand it. We’re not going to undercut them. We don’t want to undercut them. And there was cable and then satellite showed up and did good things for our business, and was a little competition to the cable guys. And then the telcos got into the business, and I think they understand that’s how the world works. So it’s kind of baked in.

MCN:Are you surprised by all the OTT competition?

DN: I come in as a programmer and as a producer, but with real interest in this sort of marketing and development of the business. It was clear to me five or six years ago, when I was a year into this job, that this is where it was going, because Netflix was already making the shift from DVDs to internet-delivered service.

And, you know, partly because I’m an outsider, it was just like a blinding glimpse of the obvious that delivering over the Internet was where it was eventually going to be, and we had to be ready for it and do it in a way that creates a good user experience. And we began building for it a while ago, so we’re doing all our programming, computer programming and service delivery, we’re doing it all in-house. And we’re going to have to start building all the core capabilities of customer service and customer attention that cable companies have spent a lot of time doing. That’s going to be competence that we’re going to have to develop.

MCN:Netflix is spending a pile of money — do you need to spend as much to compete?

DN: No. Still, we’re in expansion mode. So we probably have 11 sort of A-level scripted shows this year. It will be 12 next year, maybe even 13 next year, depending on how the year goes. So we’re definitely building up.

MCN:As opposed to what? What would be a typical year?

DN: Six years ago, it was maybe four. So we have definitely built up over the course of time. We have strength throughout the year, so that we’re able to roll from Homeland and The Affair into Shameless and Billions, into Penny Dreadful, into Ray Donovan and Roadies. They’re going to come this summer.

You know, probably in the old business, it was more important to have one giant show that forces the cable operators — like you can’t possibly drop [HBO], because how can you not have Game of Thrones? In the new business, where it’s easy to sign up and easy to cancel, it’s probably more important to have consistency across the schedule.

So we’re putting on two to three new shows a year. This year it’s Billions and Roadies. And next year it’ll be I’m Dying Up Here and Twin Peaks and some things that we haven’t announced yet in the back half of the year.

MCN:Is that sustainable? Do you want to keep that number roughly the same in coming years?

DN: I think it’s sustainable and I think it’s expandable. But we are expected to deliver earnings for our shareholders, so I’m not going to suddenly start spending 100% of our revenue. But the trick is to make your shots count when they come. And Billions counted.

And Billions was noticed. I always knew that certain power circles would love the show, but the question was, would it expand beyond that? And it really did. I mean Billions was our biggest freshman show ever. It was bigger than Ray Donovan and bigger than Homeland. And Roadies is going to count.

MCN:How do you know today thatRoadiesis going to be big?

DN: You don’t know what’s going to be a hit. I’ve never been great at predicting hits. But I know [if something has] enough cultural resonance and enough entertainment value that it’s going to get traction. It’s going to get noticed. Whether it’s going to hit or be medium, you never know. But if you’re doing something that feels original that is differentiated enough in the marketplace, that’s got enough sticky elements, whether it’s concept or actors or filmmakers behind the scenes who people want to watch, you know that you’re going to get noticed.

MCN:At what moment did you say, “Wow, this is going to connect?” Was it a song? Was it a line that was read by an actor?

DN: For me, the real moment is the script. So when I read a script and I have a certain feeling about it — I mean there’s always a leap of faith that you take. But the moment when I either emotionally connect or emotionally disconnect is reading the script. And then it becomes about trying to fulfill that vision or that’s great about the script.

MCN:Are you more like a third base coach, given your background with the showrunners?

DN: Yes. I love it. You know, you get to work with the smartest, most creative people, and ultimately, it’s their vision and I’m the third base coach; I’m not playing. But I invest in the people who I believe in and you get to make that decision. So it’s third base coach, it’s general manager, to use your baseball analogy, you get to choose who goes on the field and then try to get them to perform at their highest.

MCN:Showtime was once a network of flawed characters:Dexter,Nurse Jackie. What is it today?

DN: I think we really pride ourselves now on a diversity of shows and we try really hard not to copy ourselves. We want each show to carve out its own territory among the shows on our air and among the competition. So [if] there’s a Mafia show, it better be really differentiated from The Sopranos. Let me just say I try hard to stay away from things that are on our air and other people’s air.

But to answer your question, I think our shows have pretty deep characters, rich characters that have depths and layers to them, have kind of a deeper psychology. We’re definitely programming for adults. Now, I think we’re going to get gradually younger. You’ll see us do some things and the next couple years that are maybe slightly younger than the stuff you see on the walls now, but not dramatically so. [We] want to be forward leaning and not sort of going backwards. A lot of television is trying to do what has already had success somewhere else, and we’re trying really hard to lead the pack.

MCN:When Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate left Showtime in 2009 to form EPIX, there was a question as to whether Showtime would be able to make up for the loss of their films. Does the movie business still play a major part in your overall strategy?

DN: Well, I’d say it’s not top of the list. We know that the most important thing in terms of every buying decision that the customer makes, whether it’s to buy or to keep you, or their general perception of our brand, is based on original series. As you know, movies are seen in so many different places in so many different ways, they become more and more commoditized. That said, we’re building up, you know, we’ve added [studios] Open Road, we’ve added STX, which it looks like they’re going to be a big factor and they’ve been a big factor in the last year and a half. And they’re starting to make more adult dramas, adult comedies, thrillers.

MCN:Are you leaning to make more comedies or more dramas?

DN: More comedies, more dramas, documentaries, sports. We made a pretty big push into both sports and documentaries in the last couple years and it’s starting to pay off.

I mean, we’re very well situated right now in the boxing world with [Deontay Wilder] and Anthony Joshua. So there’s a lot of hope for renewed interest in the heavyweight division and we seem to be well-positioned there … and the documentary area is increasingly important. It’s interesting how it drives audiences more and more. And The Circus has really had impact for us.

MCN:The timing was great forThe Circus.

DN: The ongoing election — yeah, that was kind of a big risk. You have no idea what you’re going to get. You have no idea whether the campaigns are going to give you any access. And you know, you’ve got to plunk down $10 million before and just hope something good comes out of it. And it really worked.

MCN:And what gave you the cajones to put down the $10 million?

DN: I feel like it’s a kind of documentary that we’ve been working on. I’ve wanted to use this sort of All Access model of very rapid filmmaking that we did for All Access or Inside the NFL or the college football show [A Season With] … for something other than sports.

Just the ability to edit things so rapidly to be able to shoot things on a Friday, have them immediately ingested into an editing machine and be able to spit it back out and put it on the air on Sunday — that would not have been so easy five years ago. When Bernie Sanders hosted Saturday Night Live, that’s Saturday night at midnight, Sunday morning. We were on the air … 14 hours later.

MCN:What other shows do you have high hopes for?

DN:I’m Dying Up Here is based on a book of the same name about the early days of standup in L.A., and it’s a comedy and it’s a drama. It’s Jim Carrey producing. It really gets inside the minds of standup comedy, and it’s Melissa Leo and an interesting ensemble. And of course, next year, Twin Peaks. I’m incredibly excited to see what David Lynch has done. I think he’s one of the living geniuses of our business, and I think he’s going to do something magnificent.

MCN:Post-linear, on-demand viewing is growing. What percentage of viewing is done when a show’s not in season?

DN: Over half. Yeah, they’re all over 70%.

MCN:What does that tell you?

DN: It tells you people have complicated lives. [Laughs.] Television’s gotten more convenient.

But more and more, it’s on-demand. And you know, more topical shows or water cooler shows get more [live] viewers, a slightly higher percentage. But the difference is Homeland maybe it’s slightly over 30%, 35%, watching the live show versus who’s going to watch the rest of the week.

MCN:Why hasn’t Showtime dropped more entire seasons to allow binge-watching?

DN: I fundamentally don’t believe in it. … Our shows are built for hooks, and I think there’s benefit in the water cooler. And if we had to do it all in one week, I don’t think it does justice to the creativity of the shows. Our shows are very hand-crafted. Ray Donovan is going to make noise when it comes on.

MCN:What about selling to OTT providers?

DN: Our shows tend to have a lot of value when they come off of our network because they’re high-quality and they’re only seen in a limited universe, so there’s great demand from Netflix and Hulu and Amazon. We tend to do that only very late in the run, because we want people to know, “You want Ray Donovan; you want The Affair? You’ve got to go to Showtime.” So we try very hard not to muddy that by making The Affair available; just wait a season and then we’ll come on Netflix. No, you’re going to have to wait years if you want to wait for Netflix.

MCN:You’ve said in the past that Matt has been very supportive of you. And I’m just curious, what’s your vision of what you want your tenure to be like at Showtime?

DN: My goal is for Showtime to be one of the cutting-edge creative companies making the best content in a very hungry ecosystem looking for great content.

We have the business model already that everybody in the entertainment and media ecosystem wants, which is subscription-based. People see the value of writing a check for our brand on a monthly basis.

And I think also we can be a creative haven. I want, within the Hollywood community, people to feel like, “Go to Showtime, they will take care of you. They will make you the best version of yourself. They will take care of your shows so that you feel when you’re walking in, you’re going to a place where creativity is fostered.”

MCN:Do you think we’re in a content bubble right now?

DN: I think there could be some froth. I don’t think there’s a ton, because it’s a profitable business and there’s a lot of people trying to get their share. There’s already been some failure.

But I don’t see massive contraction because I think there’s enormous demand, and you have a lot of hungry viewers around the world who are getting connected, getting wired and consuming content, enjoying it.