Wow–what a ride last night was. There is nothing like election night returns. I loved every minute of it. Turns out I was very wrong about the nation’s taste for Donald Trump–or as I should say, President-Elect Trump.
But this post is not about analysis of the election. I might do that later today or tomorrow. This post is about my analysis of the news coverage last night of election night.
MAP AWARD–CNN
CNN had the best maps last night. They were big, clear, and the different color schemes worked better. FOX really made a mess of their maps, IMHO, and NBC was kind of boring.
BEST RESULTS DISPLAY AWARD–FOX
Only FOX had what I wanted–real time numbers at the bottom of the screen, constantly updating the state returns along with important senate and house elections. When I was watching the other networks, it was often hard to tell what was going on.
MOST BIASED MOMENT AWARD–MSNBC
I saw several bias moments, in all actuality. As the returns stated going red, FOX people became downright giddy. I think I heard John King say, when CNN called Virginia for Clinton, “Finally, some good news.” But the most glaring moment of bias for me was Brian Williams at MSNBC. He was rattling off several states that were just called for Trump, and then he paused and audibly moaned in pain.
ICYMI, I have included it here for your listening pleasure.
WEIRDEST SET AWARD–ABC
I confess I didn’t watch a lot of ABC’s coverage because every single time I flipped over there they were at commercial. But when I did see some of their coverage, I noticed that their whole set had a distinct purple hue to it. I kept thinking the whole thing was an homage to Prince.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR AWARD–NPR
So we were watching the coverage on television, but my brother-in-law had his phone out and was telling us that NPR was calling states much faster than the networks. NBC seemed to be the slowest of the television networks, but they all lagged behind NPR. And while I’m at it, why did it take them so long to call Georgia and Florida? It was evident to everyone one at my viewing party that those could have been called much, much earlier.
DREAM TEAM AWARD
This is my “All-Star” crew. If I could ditch the network system, I’d like to watch the returns being filtered through Brit Hume, Chuck Todd, Tom Brokaw, Rachel Maddow, and John King. Those are the voices that I think mattered the most in the analysis. I don’t agree with all of them on stuff, but they seem to have the best non-partisan analysis of what is actually going down. Hume’s cynical conservatism balances Maddows bubbling liberalism, Todd and King are just wonkish numbers nerds, and Brokaw, well, Brokaw is just a stud.
GO AWAY AND NEVER DO THIS AGAIN AWARD
I’m sick of Karl Rover (and yes, I remember his meltdown on screen on election night 2012). I am sick of Chris Matthews (no thrill down his thigh last night, huh?). Goodbye Wolf Blitzer. Seriously, Blitzer is just annoying. I hope that by 2020 you are all safely somewhere else watching the election results from your own living room.
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION AWARD–THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Whether your candidate won or lost, America did her thing last light and proved that actually voting is the only poll that matters. I love my country. I love election day.