Who won the 2024
presidential election coverage?
|
|
|
|
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. (AP Photo) |
|
And the
winner of the 2024 election is … well, we have a tie. The winners
are: MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki and CNN’s John King. These two
experts of the big maps were on top of their games Tuesday (and Wednesday
morning), performing masterfully and completely owning election night
coverage. CNN
essentially turned its broadcast over to King. Jake Tapper served as host.
The network had a team of reporters across the country. Later, Anderson
Cooper moderated the panel discussion. But it was King and his map that
carried the coverage. Both King and
Kornacki moved at lightning speed, using their fingers to flip from this
state to that one, and from this country to that one. The expertise they
showed and the authority they spoke with made viewers instantly experts on
the voting habits of Pennsylvanians and Georgians and North Carolinians. They offered
incredible insight, flipping from the current vote total, to what was left
outstanding, to how it all compared to 2020 and 2016. Well before official
numbers came in, thanks to the analysis of King and Kornacki, viewers could
quickly see where results were headed. So when the
numbers did come in, viewers already knew what they meant and who benefited
from it. Nothing is
more valuable for a viewer than to feel smarter after watching an analyst.
That’s what Kornacki and King do. They make you feel smarter, and in the
know. Other
networks offered up their maps, and it was fine. But King and
Kornacki owned the night. Speaking of
that, here’s what Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote: “One
point about the media coverage: All three cable news networks have what I
like to call ‘county czars’ — you know, the guys who break down all the state
votes county by county. There's Bill Hemmer at Fox News, very smooth. John
King at CNN, encyclopedic. And there's Steve Kornacki at MSNBC, the industry
standard in this category. I just watched him zip through many of the places
where Harris is underperforming Biden across the electoral map, with this
particular segment focusing on the boroughs of New York City. No Harris
supporter could watch the presentation without coming away very dispirited.
Given MSNBC's audience, many surely did.” |
|
|
A
MESSAGE FROM POYNTER |
|
|
Crime coverage is changing.
Are you evolving?
Transform
your newsroom’s impact on the community by reimagining your reporting on
criminal justice and crime. As a team, you’ll work together over six months
to make both big and small changes to your crime reporting, implementing
adjustments that elevate your newsroom’s focus on public safety and better
serve your audience. Apply by Dec. 6 for early bird tuition. |
|
What a comeback
Late Tuesday
night, as it appeared Donald Trump was on his way to winning the election,
there came this realization: What a comeback. ABC News’
Jonathan Karl said, “Donald Trump is on the precipice of the greatest
comeback in American political history. We’ve never seen anything like this.” Karl went
through Trump’s checkered resume. The impeachments, losing the 2020 election,
the Jan. 6 insurrection, the felony charges, a Republican stumble in the 2022
midterm election. And there
Trump was early Wednesday morning, looking like the favorite to return to the
White House. On Fox News,
anchor Bret Baier said, “We’re not there yet. We’re not calling these states.
We are going to wait and see how these raw vote totals go. But, you would
rather be him. The path is getting clearer for him right now. … That he’s
here at this moment, from Jan. 7, 2021, until now — is probably the biggest
political phoenix from the ashes that we have ever seen in the history of
politics.” Slow down
At 8:58 p.m.,
after word about slow vote counting in Georgia, CNN’s John King said, “That
tells me to tell the people at home to slow down on the popcorn or make some
more because we’re going to be at this a while. Maybe brew an extra pot.” However,
thankfully for the health of the nation, we’re not waiting until the weekend
after Election Day as we did in 2020. Good insight
NBC News
senior national political reporter Sahil
Kapur tweeted Tuesday night that an NBC News exit poll showed Trump
making double-digit gains with Latino voters. At one point on Tuesday
evening, Latino voters were breaking 53% for Harris and 45% for Trump.
Compare that to 2020 when Latinos went 65% for Biden and 32% for Trump. Good advice
During
NewsNation coverage, Chris Cuomo said he got a call from his daughter with
some good on-air advice. Cuomo told co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas, “She heard
that I was something about women and the vote, and she was basically calling
me just to tell me to shut up and let you talk. Always good advice. Always
good advice.” Red and blue
NewsNation
political editor Chris Stirewalt said something on the air that has become
abundantly clear about our country: “Right now, I am observing that red
places are getting redder. Blue places are getting bluer. Rural precincts are
getting more Republican. Suburban precincts are getting more Democratic.” Say it ain’t so, Joe
A week before
the election, Donald Trump spent three hours on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Kamala
Harris was invited to appear on the podcast, but she ended up not going on
after some failed negotiations. Harris agreed to go on Rogan’s show for an
hour if he was willing to go meet her on the campaign trail. Rogan said he
only wanted to do it at his studio in Austin, Texas, with no time limits. So it never
happened. Did that
actually end up meaning anything? Well, here’s one story, for what it’s
worth. Reporting for MSNBC from Arizona, Gadi Schwartz said the Rogan factor
was something she heard about. She talked to two voters at Arizona State
University. Schwartz
said, “One of them said that he was on the fence until — he said when Kamala
did not go on the Joe Rogan podcast, that was what influenced his vote. He
ended up voting for Trump, but he said that he was open to listening to
Kamala on the podcast. And when she didn’t again, not the — not
necessarily all the issues, but the fact that he said she didn’t seem like a
real person because she couldn’t talk for an extended period of time.” Swing and a miss
Over the
weekend, a poll
from The Des Moines Register/Mediacom shockingly showed Kamala Harris
leading Donald Trump by a margin of 47% to 44%. The poll is
traditionally accurate and well-respected among pollsters and pundits,
leading to even more of a surprise. Many
questioned whether Harris could actually win Iowa, but the poll gave Harris
supporters a shot of optimism — that maybe it was a hint of good things
elsewhere in the country. It turned out
to be a big miss. As of early
this morning, with 95% of the vote in, Trump’s lead in Iowa was 56% to 42%. Phrase of the night
MSNBC’s
Michele Norris, reporting from Harris headquarters late Tuesday night, said
Harris and staff had come up with a phrase about how they were feeling:
“Nauseously optimistic.” As the night
went on, it probably just became “nauseous.” Powerful comment
This from New
York Times columnist David French around 11 p.m. Tuesday night when Trump’s
chances of being elected were looking pretty decent: “I can only imagine the
feeling in Kyiv right now. The nation is giving everything to fight Russian
aggression, and now Ukrainians face the probability that the arsenal of
democracy will abandon them at their hour of great need.” Columnist
Nicholas Kristof added, “The intelligence community believed that Russia was
intervening in the election to assist Trump, and if Trump wins, then Putin
wins as well. Back during the Chechen war, Putin showed he could outlast
critics, and he bet on the theory that he could outlast Western critics when
he invaded Ukraine. If Trump is elected, then Putin may be proved right.” Stewart’s reaction
Jon Stewart
ended his election night special coverage on Comedy Central’s “The Daily
Show” by ripping into pollsters with a few choice words I can’t say here. After calming
down, Stewart said, “What we know is that we don’t really know anything. And
that we’re going to come out of this election and we’re going to make all
kinds of pronouncements about what this country is and what this world is,
and the truth is, we’re not really going to know (expletive), and we’re going
to make it seem like this is the finality of our civilization. And I just
want to point out, just as a matter of perspective, that the lessons that our
pundits take away from these results, that they will pronounce with
certainty, will be wrong.” The
Daily Beast’s Michael Boyle noted, “He then showed a few clips of
pundits’ predictions after previous elections. When Barack Obama won in 2008,
they predicted that the country had moved past race as an issue. In the 2020,
they said that Donald Trump would be exiled from American politics. None of
these statements were correct, Stewart argued.” Then Stewart
added, “But this isn’t the end. I promise you. This is not the end. We have
to regroup, and we have to continue to fight, and continue to work, day in
and day out, to create the better society for our children, for this world,
for this country, that we know is possible. It’s possible.” To be fair
While many
will want to rip the pollsters, the bottom is most polls had the race as very
tight and all within the margin of error. Even in those polling stories,
pollsters emphasized that they really didn’t know who would win. And, as the
night stretched well into the morning, there still wasn’t a declared winner.
So, you could argue, the polls (for the most part) were spot on. For those
upset with the polls, it could only be because they were reading into the
polls what they wanted.  Last word
Even though a
winner had not been declared, CNN’s Van Jones delivered a sobering message.
Jones was responding somewhat to comments from CNN contributor and former
Trump adviser David Urban, who said that the apparent Trump victory was a way
for “regular people” to tell the so-called “elite” that they didn’t like
being talked down to and that there needed to be a “reckoning” that Trump
isn’t so crazy with his ideas about the economy and border and so on. Jones
responded with, “I’m thinking about the people who are not a part of
anybody's elite who are hurting tonight. There are African American women who
know a little bit about being talked down to, who know a little bit about
having their economic dreams crushed, who tried to dream a big dream the past
couple months. And tonight they’re trading in a lot of hope for a lot of
hurt. They were hoping that, maybe, this time one of their own could be seen
worthy. And, once again, they’re facing rejection. And that hurts. They
thought tomorrow morning they’re going to walk out with their shoulders back
a little bit. They’d be able to breathe for the first time. They feel like
they belong someplace. They did everything they knew how to do. And it’s
going to be harder than it should be for them to hold their heads up.” Jones also
mentioned others who are suffering because of an apparent Trump victory, such
as those in the trans community and immigrants. “It’s people
who woke up with a dream,” Jones said, “and are going to bed with a
nightmare.” |
|
|
A
MESSAGE FROM POYNTER |
|
|
A forward-minded look at
the state of journalism
Poynter
recently brought together a wide array of media experts, leaders and thinkers
to discuss the state of the news media industry and themes. You can find the
results in Poynter’s recently published OnPoynt
report, which highlights current industry trends in areas such as local
news and content creators, misinformation and AI innovations. |
|
Other interesting links and
tidbits from Election Day …
·
The
Guardian’s Robert Tait with “Los Angeles Times owner cites Gaza
war as a reason not to endorse Harris.” ·
CNN’s
Hadas Gold and Kristen Holmes with “Trump campaign denies and revokes
journalists’ election night credentials after critical coverage.” ·
The
New York Times’ famed “needle” returned Tuesday night on the heels of the
Times’ tech workers going on strike. My colleague Rick Edmonds wrote about the
“needle.” ·
OK,
here’s a tweet that made sense, at least if you were dizzy from watching
hours upon hours of TV coverage. This came out early
Wednesday morning as it appeared Trump was on his way to victory: “So if
you're a 2020 denier, what's the new gospel, they just forgot to do it this
time around?” More resources for
journalists
·
It’s
time to apply for the Leadership Academy for Women in
Media. ·
Consider
this dynamic, in-person, five-day
workshop for new newsroom managers. ·
Reinvigoration for the
unsung heroes of the TV newsroom. Have
feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org. |
