Covering the Coverage
America’s broadcast news organizations revved up their coverage for Election Night 2004 with the studio production to match a Miss America pageant. On CNN, the “Iron Man of Journalism,” Wolf Blitzer, marched along walls of graphics on blue carpet to point to a (mostly) red map. On MSNBC, Chris Matthews hosted from “Democracy Plaza”—Rockefeller Center covered from head to ice rink in the red, white and blue of patriotic decoration. On ABC, Peter Jennings simply touched a button on his desk in one smooth, Vanna White-esque motion, and the flat screen map behind him revealed the latest counts. All night familiar talking heads appeared on crowded screens with floating logos and racing tickers, delivering analysis and coverage of the election results while speculating about the numbers, voter turnout, and eventually, provisional ballots.
In an effort to avoid the mistakes of 2000, the broadcasters depended on “decision desks” for their election results. Perhaps to gain credibility, they periodically gave viewers a backstage peak—some star reporter live via satellite in a room filled with people looking at computers. There they explained what “too close to call” and “not enough data” meant with a patience uncharacteristic of American media. In addition, a common theme of the night was how careful the news organizations would be when calling the state-by-state results. As CBS anchor and target of the recent memo-gate blunder Dan Rather put it: “We would rather be last than wrong.” And later, perhaps realizing that dead last might not be so cool after all: “We want to be as close to right as possible.”
Even Fox was emphasizing caution in their reports. Shepard Smith repeatedly referred to mistakes in calling states in 2000, and often said that he didn’t trust exit polls. “Do with those numbers what you will; that and $3.95 will get you a latte at Starbucks,” Smith said. Whether he was trying to make up for mistakes in the last presidential election, or downplaying his confidence in the numbers to distance himself from errors this time around, the analysis of data and the hesitation to call results made following the numbers game a long night of swirling digital graphs, tickers and patriotic imagery—providing constant eye candy even when there weren’t constant updates.
Throughout the night—especially with the big story of the night, Ohio’s lingering battleground state status—the various news operations were not on equal footing. Fox consistently called states (like California, Michigan and Hawaii) later than other networks, whereas CBS and ABC tended to be ahead in the state-calling race. But then ABC slowed down. The shift occurred around 8 p.m. when Peter Jennings said, “I think we were making those projections at 8 o’clock in a hurry there.” Around 8:20 p.m. he gave us “just a reminder” about close battleground states: “Under our new system we will be as cautious as we can.” He was very deliberate when using the words “project” and “predict.” Then for a while, the CBS map seemed to tell the future for the other networks with a more old-fashioned electoral map. (Rather pointed at it with a number two pencil.) At the top of each hour, when another set of polls closed, there was hardly a consensus among the networks as to the current electoral count.
In between the results, which often came in dramatic interruptions followed by swooshing visuals and a change in the count, the networks filled the time with discussions about Kerry’s remaining paths to victory, Congressional and governor’s races, how important morals are to Kerry supporters in Cuyahoga County and the youth vote. All the while, anchors contextualized this election as the greatest in history and the most important of our lives, effectively setting us up for either total jubilation or grim disappointment.
Osama bin Laden, America’s most recognized shadowy figure was hardly mentioned during the coverage, but other shadowy figures were: bloggers. This was a new addition to the reporting since 2000. Matthews, on MSNBC, routinely checked in with blog-watcher Joe Trippi, who reported with updates as to what “citizen journalists” were posting on the Internet. Fox addressed blogger’s reports of an early Kerry lead and began to question their accuracy. Dan Rather preferred the term “Internet reports.”
Blitzer anchored CNN’s coverage from a command center. Anderson Cooper followed the congressional and gubernatorial races. Aaron Brown offered soggy editorial throughout the night causing viewers (and Larry King) to get very sleepy. King, hunched over and fumbling, looked like he might pass out at any minute. At one point he mistakenly called Barack Obama the first black senator as Jeff Greenfield whispered “wrong” at him from the side. Paula Zahn, who wore a Madonna-style headset microphone, sat at a desk overlooking Columbus Circle along with the entire cast of Crossfire and managed the partisan debate.
On ABC, Cokie Roberts and George Stephanopoulos contributed to the coverage with outside sources like Newsweek Editor Fareed Zakaria. Jennings conducted satellite interviews with officials from both parties, such as Ken Mehlman from the Bush campaign and Ted Divine of the Kerry campaign. Jennings called Ohio’s gay marriage ban the strictest of those that passed, read the amendment, and said the ban was a “hugely significant social event.”
MSNBC’s Election Night coverage was a 10-ring circus, led by Chris Matthews, set to a chorus of music that pumped up the audience with sounds of patriotism and also caused nail-biting suspense with sounds of a slasher movie. Matthews’ panel ran the political gamut, from Pat Buchanan to Ron Reagan. Members of the “palace court press,” David Gregory and Nora O’Donnell, camped outside the White House and eagerly reported what the Bush camp was having for dinner and whether the president was currently smiling or frowning. Anchor Dan Abrams reported the legal issues arising in the campaign—long lines, counting provisional ballots, not counting absentee ballots, and so on. NBC News’ Brian Williams, looking tan, reported at 23 minutes and at 53 minutes after every hour from the NBC “Tracking Center” with news on exit polls.
Fox had reporters at the White House and at the Bush and Kerry New York headquarters, but didn’t show footage of the Bush clan watching the results as other networks did. Commentators addressed anxiety over the stock markets and reassured worried viewers that with a clear winner, the stocks would stabilize. Anchor Shepard Smith repeatedly explained the user-friendly ticker at the bottom of the screen to his viewers (who apparently don’t know how to read). Greta Van Sustren chimed in on legal issues like the stem cell research bill on the ballot in California and the constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in various states.
The networks and cable broadcasts depended mostly on their own reporters and contributors, but there was a parade of partisans, including Vanessa Kerry, Ralph Nader, Sen. Bill Frist, Joe Lockhart, Sen. John McCain, Karen Hughes, and Rudy Giuliani, who made the rounds for short visits to spin the results and beam confidence.
At 1 a.m. NBC and MSNBC called Ohio for Bush, and effectively the end of the road for Kerry. Seven minutes later, Fox also had made the call. The other networks still had Ohio as too close to call and continued discussions of “Ohio is the new Florida,” scrambling for facts about provisional ballots. From this point on, NBC, MSNBC and Fox were the only networks with Ohio in Bush’s column, giving him 269 electoral votes. On CNN, Blitzer reminded guests and reporters who cited Ohio as a Bush win, that they had not yet called it. The reporters and guests retorted that other networks had.
Speculation ensued. There was talk of a possible 269/269 electoral tie on ABC, but it didn’t stick. Around 1:30 a.m. NBC said that Karl Rove was waiting for one more phone call from Nevada to put Bush over the top and send him on to victory. At 1:52 a.m., CNN couldn’t stand not making a call on Ohio, but the network was paralyzed with fears of repeating the blue to red to “too close to call” switch of Florida in 2000. They finally made a projection for Ohio: not blue or red, but green! Yes, green! Wolf Blitzer explained that a green state was a first for CNN and it meant simply that Ohio was now officially too close to call. “It’s not easy being green,” anchor Jeff Greenfield said.
“Provisional ballots are the new hanging chads,” and “the counting could go on for days,” were repeated across the airwaves. At 2 a.m. CNN reported that Red Sox owner John Henry, who endorsed Kerry, had his jet fueled and ready to depart Boston for Ohio with a cargo of lawyers to fight for the right to count provisional ballots. After Edwards told the crowd in Boston at 2:30 a.m., “We will fight for every vote and you deserve no less,” Buchanan told MSNBC viewers that the Kerry people might know something about provisional ballots that the press didn’t. CNN reported a debate within the Kerry camp over the provisional ballots and whether or not they might actually break for Bush. Then at 2:56 a.m., Chris Wallace of Fox News said that Bush would be elected, and Candy Crowley of CNN reported from a vacant Kerry camp that everyone had gone to bed.
Despite television news reporters chomping at the bit in the wee morning hours to report some kind of debacle or conflict to keep the viewers’ attention, Kerry conceded the election later that afternoon without any of the anticipated drama, and we wondered why we hadn’t followed the Kerry camp lead, and just gone to bed.
