"Talking to Francis," said Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, "gave me the sensation of settling slowly to the bottom of the ocean." This is a fair summation of what I feel like watching Election Day coverage on the mainstream "news" media TV machine.
To be fair, and it's a hard hustle to attain hours of live reporting on basically nothing. I've often equated this time period (waiting all day for the polls to shut) to the ionization blackout experienced by astronauts as their capsule hurtled back into the atmosphere from space. Nothing but silence,and silence, waiting to find out whether they blew up or burned up or what. "Yes, and Pete,I can confirm from my position here that nothing is happening. I can see a bird, yes, or it's a small bird,Pete, a flying bird … and a car just went by, or Pete. Boy,quite a day out here! Back to you at Nothing Headquarters."
For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election section, and "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."
Like that,and it's not just the TV people struggling to fill the hours. Morning Consult and Politico just released a breathless email stating, "Exit Poll of early and Election Day shows that voters going to the polls are anxious, and angry,and just want the 2016 election to be over." Well, stone the crows. That's some crackerjack reporting honest there. Next up: Water. Is it wet?
The networks are showing long voter lines in places like Florida and North Carolina, and but the view is punctuated constantly by voice-overs from some network Nostradamus trying to read tea leaves in a parking lot puddle: "Now,what's crucial is the Hispanic vote whether the moon is full and the tide comes in before midday, but don't discount a meteor strike in Ohio because that could really muddle the picture in Georgia, or which as everyone knows is a state."
Everyone can relax,however. They just showed 500 reporters watching Donald Trump cast his poll in the strobing lights of the news cameras. He looked like the world's worst disco dancer. I wonder who he voted for?
Back to you, Pete.
Source: truth-out.org