Tuesday, November 04, 2008
All Hail the Chief
CNN is projecting we've got a new president.
As of 11 p.m., it's roughly 297 Electoral votes compared to 139 votes for John McCain. in addition to winning all of New England, Obama is projected to win Washington, California, Oregon, Nevada, Virginia and a handful of states in the midwest.
Earlier tonight, I was at work when one of my coworkers, a black woman, turned to me and said she didn't think he was going to do it. I told her to wait until after 8 pm to start making projections.
Whether you voted for him or not, you can't help but feel a ping in your heart. We've come this far. We've got a long way to go, but my God, we've got a black President.
Labels: election, McCain, Obama, vote
continue...Saturday, September 06, 2008
Election Reporters share tips, opinions
As I mentioned, I'm blogging live from the conference here.Here's a post I wrote earlier about a panel on election coverage. I thought the Q&A part would be helpful for our readers.
Election Roundtable: Q&A
A few questions and answers from the session....
Is who makes the most money really the best way to choose how you'll spread coverage around?
Sweet: Obama is a hometown guy; some candidates got more coverage than they deserved because they were interesting, etc.
There's not enough decoding of what is actually meant (should be done by reporters). There are not enough voices of color giving analysis or commenting (to give context like this).
The majority of top reporters covering politics at news outlets are white men over 50, says Jodi.
What do you read, watch, listen to, or not?
Felice: Loves Maureen Dowd, the Politico
Lynn: Mike Allen's Playbook at Politico, The Page (an aggregated site that looks at what moves the day), CBS/ABC aggregates, NYT, Wash Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and the links on her blog. She doesn't pay attention to one on one interviews. She needs places giving lots of information synthesized.
Beth: Mike Allen's Playbook, CNN, NYT for general coverage and Slate's XX Factor
Ann: Michele Cotta from the Republic, Rebecca Traister at Salon
Can the Obama campaign sustain the interest and energy?
Yes, they can sustain the energy, but will the young people who have mobilized for him really vote?? That's the question, said Beth.
Lynn Sweet: Term Obama uses is "intensity gap" -- they say they're ahead of McCain. Palin revs up Repubs the way Obama has done for the Dems.
Places like the Politico don't have the same resource base as the old media institutions -- are there going to be journos covering political campaigns in a new media world? What's our strategy to keep the journalism in the campaign?
Beth said they're doing partnerships with papers like St. Paul Pioneer Press and Denver Post. Also launching Politico network -- content and ad revenue sharing program that will launch on Tuesday. It all has to do with marketing and advertising. Can't see advertising is our enemy.
Labels: convention, election, journalism, McCain, Obama, organization, political coverage, primary, seminars/workshops, the industry, tips and tricks
continue...Friday, February 23, 2007
Reporting Democracy
I guess I'll have to be the first to say that I'm tired of the 2008 election, already. I don't want to read about it, or hear it on the radio, or see it on the television.The problem: I don't know anything relevant about the candidates or their service records.
Instead I know them as a white woman who is just everywhere all at once, a biracial guy from Illinois who writes good books, an Italian ex-mayor of New York City and a really old guy who opposes a woman’s right to choose.
And trailing behind them are a Mormon, a guy who referred to a black candidate as clean (but he meant to say ‘fresh’), and that other guy with a Southern accent who’s gearing up for his third attempt at the White House.
Almost every respectable news outlet has run stories about Barack Obama’s racial background being an issue with black voters, as if his identifying with the black community is irrelevant.
Or about Rudolph Giuliani being the first Italian-Catholic presidential hopeful. Bada bing and whoop-tee doo!
Or about Hilary Clinton being the first woman front-runner. What do you me to say? "You go girl!?"
Or even about John McCain being for a federal stop to abortion, and not for a constitutional ban to gay marriages. (Has anyone told him that both those issues are equally viewed as attempts to legislate morality?) ...typical.
And why print these stories?
Is America afraid that Obama will serve greasy, heart attack inducing fried chicken and collard greens at his inaugural ball? At least that’s what they thought after Tiger Woods was the first black man to win the masters.
Will Giuliani bring the Italian mafia to the White House? Will they be able to film the lost episodes of the final season of HBO’s Sopranos from the oval office?
Will Clinton’s presence in the White House synchronize the menstruation periods of all the female staff, making it harder for the male staff a few days every month?
Does McCain have any business gunning for anti-abortion laws, when a more realistic issue for him to take up would be senior citizen abuse in convalescent hospices? He's 72. The man probably couldn't jog around the White House for his morning exercise.
Truth is, journalism hasn’t provided me with very many relevant thinking points. As of now I don't see anything but a bunch of jockeys on horses in a race for multi-millions in campaign contributions. And democracy is not being promoted here.
A solution: shut down the presses on the election! We’ve got more than a year to go before the primaries. By then, we wouldn’t care if Obama was born to a Martian and a golden retriever, if Clinton was transgender, if Giuliani starred in Godfather Part Four, or if McCain adopted black orphaned babies from Africa.
Labels: Clinton, election, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, primary
continue...