I spend much too much time reviewing Election 2016 coverage. I have to cut back for a while.
It's more than pure nostalgia at play here. There is a Youtube 22 or so minute recap of the last Super Bowl. I have watched that at least a dozen times. That is an exercise in unadulterated nostalgia. Election night is a horse of a different color.
Yes, there is some reliving of an adventure and there is some schadenfreude, of course, but there is so much more. We sometimes ask if the fourth estate are liars, idiots or both. Most of us say both. Yet, the self-professed experts--to the person--seem genuinely fooled, even shocked, by the events of November 8. I guess if you live in a bubble...
On Hoosierman's recommendation, I watched 6 hours of ABC's coverage of this historic night. It was intriguing. These arrogant know-it-alls put Trump in the past tense early on. They were downright giddy, pointing out Trump's many errors. Then, lightning struck.
In fairness, ABC saw the inevitable fairly early on. I also have to extend reluctant praise to ABC for coming up with a snazzy presentation. Reluctant praise also for George Stephanopolis, who despite his obvious partisanship, did a great job of moving the ball around.
I don't expect you to watch all six hours but you might get hooked like I did. In case you want some highlights:
Nate Silver initially puts Hillary at 71% and later bumps her up to 78%. Around 3:16:27 he has Trump at 78%.
When the tide turned there were the usual charges of bad temperment, MAGA stupidity and so on. Cokie Roberts suggests that the disaffected were those left behind by technological advances. No, Cokie, coal miners, steel, workers, oil field workers, pipeline builders want to UNLEASH technology. It is Washington that has left them behind.
There is a humorous comment by Matthew Dowd circa 5:21;;00 where he rails against Trump's disrespect for the press.
BTW, J. D. Vance nails it at 5:23;30.
ABC
Jonesing for more, I watched most of CBS's coverage. It was dowdier, they waited much longer to call the results, and it was chockful of charges of "racial animus." By comparison, ABC was downright evenhanded. I took notes and in retrospect, I wonder why I did so.
There are some humorous moments. CBS tells us that Florida is in a dead heat. They switch away to Clinton HQ and the correspondent tells us that the mood has changed since Florida was called for Trump. She switches back to CBS HQ and they continue the Florida is too close to call bs.
I got to get back to life. No more media analysis for a while.
CBS
1 comment:
Regarding the polling that produced the surprise, anger and anguish my first impulse was to blame the Wilder effect but I have seen some discussion that blames caller ID for skewing the polling sample. That theory speculates that Democrats are more eager to make their feelings known than Republicans. Once caller ID has outed the pollster Democrats answer the phones while Republicans let it ring.
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