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May 26, 2012

Election '06: The day after

by Bob Sassone, posted Nov 8th 2006 12:31PM

CNNSome quick thoughts on the TV election coverage last night:

1. CNN's coverage was annoying. First, they have that giant screen that looks like a cross between Best Buy and Dr. No's hideout, and they also have Wolf Blitzer as the host. Why does CNN put so much faith in him, with his odd tone and word phrasings? He and Jeff Greenfield looked so ridiculous standing up the whole night, standing in front of the giant screen trying to talk about the results. There were a couple of times where they literally bumped into each other, and Wolf had to tell Greenfield to stand behind him. I felt sorry for Greenfield, really. And their expert guests (James Carville, Paul Begala, J.C. Watts, and William Bennett), when they weren't on the air, were just stuck in the background in chairs. They looked like they were taking phone calls during a PBS telethon.

2. MSNBC had good coverage, especially Keith Olbermann and their reporters (Brokaw, Russert, Williams, Mitchell, etc). But there were two overbearing things on the set last night: Chris Matthews and their graphics. I got a headache from watching all the numbers and colors and special effects. I couldn't understand what was going on, and had to switch over to FOX News, whose numbers were a little easier to understand.

3. I don't think Katie Couric was real last night. I think she was replaced by a wax dummy. Seriously, what's wrong with the makeup she's getting? They should really check out how she looks in digital on a screen above 32 inches. She's cute and doesn't need all that makeup. She did a good job though, I think. Serious when she had to be and lighter when she had to be. I think that watching the main network coverage at 10pm might have been better than watching the cable nets all night long. Not as overwhelming and you got all the numbers too.

4. Best Candidate Names: Zack Space and Sheldon Whitehouse. Zack Space sounds like a superhero, or maybe some hip web space all the kids are joining. And Whitehouse? Whitehouse???? Wow, what a name for a politician. If he runs for President, he's probably a shoo-in.

5. Some of these pundits...do ordinary viewers really care what people like Fred Barnes think?

6. Comedy Central's Midterm Midtacular was a great way to end the night (unless you were watching MSNBC, whose coverage went well into the morning). And since the show was live, we got to see a couple of flubs and how Stewart and Colbert covered them. I missed Dan Rather though. How was he?

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Zod

I never watch Fox News for many of the same reasons I don't drink urine, but I did tune in last night for the pleasure of watching Brit et al. squirm and mope every time they had to call a race for the cut'n'run San Francisco liberal Defeatocrats, which they had to do ALL NIGHT LONG and INTO THE MORNING. I know friends who did the same, so I wonder how much of Fox's ratings domination last night was schadenfreude-fueled...I'll probably tune in again to watch Senator Macaca's concession speech, too.

November 08 2006 at 9:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
const

So it was you guys who were watching MSNBC. Good thing you guys gave a recap or else no one else would have known about the all glowing mathews/olberman recap.

FNC 3,050,000
CNN 2,963,000
MSNBC 1,926,000

November 08 2006 at 5:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

With zero precent of the state reporting we are read to annouce the winner!

If I saw that one more time I was going to strangle all the news reporters. The AP last night had "BREAKING NEWS!!!" on who won based only on EXIT POLLING! Dumbasses, true dumbasses.

November 08 2006 at 4:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
karen

pretty much stuck with msnbc all the way through, despite the fact that matthews is annoying...was worth it though...round about 4am(eastern), his eyes were rolling around unfocused and he was having a helluva time keeping his train of thought...but then again, it IS politics!!!!

November 08 2006 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Scott

The Daily Show part of the Midtacular was fairly lame--lots of taped bits, bad information, weak interview with Rather (more of a "hi-how-are-you?" than an interview). Jon did use the s**t word, and it went out live--he's used to being bleeped in editing afterward.

On the other hand, I thought Colbert was much better. He also had some lame prepared bits, but the 2 cakes at the beginning for the possible outcomes ("Congratulations, Republicans" or "Congratulations, Terrorists"), his growing despondency as the Democrats' win became clearer, and his mock quitting and returning at the end were very funny. His interactions with Jon, longer than we normally get in the handoffs, were also top-notch.

November 08 2006 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Curtis

I agree with Tad 100% on Rather. I didn't even see his whole stint (maybe that makes a difference, I don't know) but what I did see looked uncomfortable and not necessarily funny. And with the graphics declaring the winners/losers it wasn't immediately apparent, if at all, which was which.

Good stuff otherwise.

November 08 2006 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

I stuck with ABC News through most of the night. George Stephanapolous and George Will were great.

Anyone notice that NBC News used the same set for their election coverage as Football Night in America? Every time they came back from commercial, I expected Bob Costas to go into highlights of the Giants game.

November 08 2006 at 2:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tad

I generally wasn't impressed with the Daily Show/Colbert Report Midterm Midtacular. It had a few good comedic moments (the graphics showing the Loser of a race and the Exit Poll segment), but overall I felt the show lacked both comedy and information.

And I didn't really find Rather all that funny. The timing of the comedy was way off, and it was one joke (his "Ratherisms") stretched for a few minutes. Rather just didn't look comfortable up there.

November 08 2006 at 1:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tool

I usually have watched CNN during the elections, but this year watched MSNBC.

I really like Chris Matthews and his team. They did a terrific job.

November 08 2006 at 1:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian Sheridan

Rather was hilarious. He used all of his "homespun" Texan Ratherisms! I met him earlier this year and he was just a great guy.

November 08 2006 at 1:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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