" Coverage of U.S. election now lacks suspense - International Herald Tribune
Culture
Morning home delivery - save up to 72%
Advanced
Search
Chris Wallace, left, the host of Fox News Sunday, and Karl Rove, take part in a panel discussion in California in July. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)

TELEVISION

Coverage of U.S. election now lacks suspense

Published: October 28, 2008

News shows should probably come with a spoiler alert: the following program contains images and language that seem to jump to a foregone conclusion.

Cable news and network anchors are not saying point-blank that the election is over. Instead they are saying, ""We're not saying it's over ..."" with a ""but"" that speaks volumes. One week away from the election news anchors and commentators have the taut, self-conscious demeanor they don on election nights when the exit polls are in, but when they are duty-bound not to declare a winner.

Sometimes, however, they can't quite stifle the blue-stained maps in their minds.

On ""Meet the Press"" on Sunday, Chuck Todd, NBC's political director, said there was something ""Shakespearean"" about the way McCain appears to be losing Hispanic voters in the West — despite having challenged his party on the issue of immigration reform. ""You know, the S in John McCain is going to stand for Shakespeare, I think, when this campaign is over,"" Todd said.

It's not over, but terms like ""highly favored,"" ""touchdown favorite,"" ""comfortable lead"" and even ""a near-insurmountable lead"" are bouncing all over television these days. They fill many viewers, regardless of their party affiliation, with opposite but parallel forms of dread: inevitability, or the illusion of it, breeds complacency on one side, and defeatism on the other.

More Coverage

Gratifying as it may be, it's not really fair to blame the news media: there is a flood of predictive data available, and reporters cannot realistically dam it up. (If anything, they are to be commended for not trying to boost ratings by artificially prolonging suspense.)

For viewers who feel unnerved by so much suppressed certainty, it's an opportune time to check out the Fox News Channel. The election coverage there is not so much fair and balanced as it is a useful counterbalance.

On Monday talk turned to Ohio, where Senator Barack Obama has a five-point lead in some polls. ""Yet at the same time, the polls in the last midterm election in 2006 — they were sort of all over the place,"" the Fox anchor Jon Scott told a reporter from The Columbus Dispatch, with a glint of hope in his voice. ""We could be looking at poll numbers here that aren't exactly what everybody seems to think they are.""

While CNN and MSNBC wallow in maps, charts and delegate counts, Fox is focused on the latest flare-ups that could still put a dent in Obama's lead. On Monday Fox bore down on a radio interview Obama gave in 2001 in which he lamented that the civil rights movement had focused on the courts and did not do enough to further ""redistributive change,"" or as Scott put it, ""the redistributive wealth thing.""

Byron York, a writer at National Review, told the Fox anchor Megyn Kelly that in the interview Obama had used ""old lefty terms like economic justice"" to justify progressive taxation. York noted that any government relies on some form of wealth redistribution, and that Obama's remarks merely suggested that he wanted to take it further.

Kelly noted that the interview mostly ""reaffirmed"" what Obama told Joe the Plumber.

Viewers may not agree with Joe the Plumber, or even understand exactly who he is, but the lavish attention paid to him — and Obama's use of the words ""spread the wealth"" to explain his tax plan — is a reliable indicator of where Fox senses vulnerability.

Fox is not exactly optimistic about Senator McCain's chances, however. Karl Rove, the Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush who is now a Fox contributor, deplored the infighting within the McCain campaign about strategy and Sarah Palin as a bad omen.

""This is, again, as you say, not the kind of thing you like to have happening in your campaign,"" Rove told Chris Wallace of Fox on Sunday. ""And it's generally a sign that people are throwing in the towel and thinking that they're going to lose.""

Even on Fox, there are some signs of discord about the McCain campaign's tactics, most notably during a lively exchange on Saturday between two Fox stars, Geraldo Rivera and Sean Hannity, over Obama's ties to the former '60s radical William Ayers, whom Hannity describes as a ""domestic terrorist.""

Rivera told Hannity that he was doing the McCain campaign a ""disservice"" by harping on Ayers at the expense of economic issues, calling the focus ""an unsavory fixation."" Hannity disagreed, so Rivera took it further.

""I used to be friends with Yasser Arafat,"" Rivera said. ""Does that make me a terrorist?""

They parted amicably and, most important, they didn't call the election.

Back to top
Home  >  Culture
IHT.com Home »

Latest News

Regis Duvignau/Reuters
Winemakers complain that the government, egged on by killjoys, wants to make it harder to sell and drink wine.
In Opinion: David Brooks: The behavioral revolution
More Headlines
Video
See all videos »
An exhibition in Paris
Jim Dine on his installation at the Getty Villa. The artist has combined two of his passions, sculpture and po...
Chanel's pavilion in Central Park, New York.
An 80th birthday celebration for Maurice Sendak, the children's author and illustrator.
Lynn Hirschberg speaks with the actress about her career and doing love scenes with another woman.
Lynn Hirschberg interviews the actor Javier Bardem, one of the stars of ""Vicky Cristina Barcelona.""
Lynn Hirschberg interviews the actress, who stars in two new films, ""Vicky Cristina Barcelona"" and ""Elegy.""
The Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh looks back on years of walks in the hills of the West Bank.
An insider look at film director Zhang Yimou, who is directing the opening cermonies at the Olympic Games.
David Carr talks about an incident recounted in his memoir, ""The Night of the Gun.""

Most E-Mailed

|
|
iht.com/energy

Oil's stunning retreat: How long can it last?

More from Energy:

Contact iht.com

Close this window or Send us another message
News:
Features:
Business:
Opinion:
Classifieds:
Company Info:
Newspaper:
Other Formats:
More:
Subscriptions
Sign Up  |  Manage
Copyright © 2008 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved