As per recent swirling rumors, the LA Times reports that billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle have put in a bid to buy the embattled Tribune Company, which owns the (recently embattled) LA Times plus television properties and, just for kicks, the Chicago Cubs. No word on if equally-rumored suitor David Geffen put in a bid, which probably means that he did not. James Rainey, the LAT media writer on the LAT beat, notes that all three potential future owners "have said in the past that The Times would benefit from their stewardship because they would be willing to accept lower profits and invest in news coverage." Which sort of makes the departure of EIC Dean Baqueta little bit sadder, seeing as he was forced out precisely for his efforts toward that end.
In other LAT-related navelgazing news, Seth Mnookin examines the impact of the Baquet departure a few time zones east, looking at what it may mean for the New York Times, where he suggests could 
easily be Baquet's next stop up the masthead (or, eventually up the masthead, which is really the thrust of his point). It's an interesting backstory, but he makes the sort of disheartening point that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. could get around promoting managing editor Jill Abramson — a woman — to the top executive editor position were he to replace her wtih an African-American editor, i.e. Baquet. Sort of depressing that it's such an either/or situation, and so anomalous that it even bears notice. It will be good at least if this stimulates some debate, or at least awareness — says Mnookin: "[F]or all its coverage of and obsession over race and gender, the media isn't that great at discussing difficult issues in its own house." Well, hey — this is a start. Why not aim high? If Nancy Pelosi can drain the Congressional swamp in a hundred hours then surely the media can clean out a few cobwebs of its own. As Snoop Dogg says, dream big — you may never wake up.
This concludes what ETP is fairly sure is the only blog post today likening Nancy Pelosi to Snoop Dogg. Spizzle of the Hizzle!
It's official: Donald Rumsfeld has finally — finally! — resigned. After repeated calls for his resignation by generals, army newspapers, inner-circle Republicans and pretty much everyone else, it took a record voter turnout to get the message through. Yesterday we noted that Norah O'Donnell had interpreted the massive turnout and House sweep as a mandate for the Dems; clearly the message has gotten through to the White House. Finally.
No longer related:
Democrats' win alone won't drive Rumsfeld out [WaPo]
Rumsfeld Has No Plans to Step Down, Despite Democrat Gains, Official Says [Fox News]
Update: Bizarrely, it's looking like the Comedy Central Insider blog was first with the scoop. No, really.
Across the front pages of today's papers the big story is, obviously, the Democrat sweep of the House, and particularly the ascension of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, sweeping out the bumbling obfuscations of Denny Hastert and promising a new era in the first 100 hours. That all three of the major papers chose to run this photo of a triumphant Pelosi is no coincidence (except insofar as it was, actually, a coincidence).
A brief survey of local papers, all available to eyeball at Newsdesigner.com, shows the Dem sweep plus 
local races on the front page; and while the Kansas City Star underscores the tragic realities of print vs. more immediate forms of media (of McCaskill and Talent: "Crucial Contest Down To The Wire"...unless you were up at 2 am to see that one decided) and the New Orleans Times-Picayune blaring "DEMOS TAKE HOUSE" which must certainly be bittersweet in that city. On the right, the Chicago Sun-Times opts for simplicity; on the global level, Sweden's Dagens Nyheter reflects the Webb-Allen nailbiter. That image and close-ups of the front pages shown above may be after the jump; all manner of other front pages at Newsdesigner.
from foxnews.com
The NYO bests the 24-hour news cycle by publishing an up-to-the-very-last-second election story by TV scribe Rebecca Dana reported straight from the election-night belly of the beast at Fox News. Dana notes that this is the first time in five years, since Fox hit its stride and overtook CNN, that the network's conservative-tilting viewers have had to weather a disappointing election night (though, note that FNC just celebrated its 10th anniversary, which would have included the Clinton re-election, not to mention coverage of stains on a blue Gap dress).
Dana got to overhear a snatch of off-camera conversation between Hume and frequent contributors Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes as they discussed what they perceived to be Democratically-leaning exit poll data (and indeed, Fox stopped using the National Election Poll exit data mid-way through the night). Kristol showed his contempt for voters by surmising why the data was skewing Dem: "It's a bunch of 24-year-old graduate students and retirees... Who else has time to stand outside a polling place all day long?" (Kristol no doubts forgets all the other people who had time to stand outside a polling place all day long back in 2004 when lines at polling centers stretched for nine hours in places like Ohio. Those were the days, eh?)
Wonkette reported detecting a trace of melancholy in Hume's demeanor last night as he reported result after result favoring the Dems: "The Dems just picked up DeLay's old seat ... this is from Fox. This is from Brit Hume. He almost weeps."
Dana also reiterates the point that the network anchors all went in facing their first election (see their openers here) and has a nice quote from Brian Williams, who always seems to be the go-to guy for such commentary:
"We don't get paid to do the news on a random Wednesday," said Mr. Williams the day before the election. "We get paid for those rare days. One of the last anchors called it a handholding function. There is that sense of viewers coming together to share an experience. We all grew up with it. We still serve that need."
In other news, watch for Williams' super-special brodcast next Wednesday.
The No-Win Zone: Sharp-Toothed Fox News Team Has Gloomy Night [NYO]
BREAKING ... BRIT HUME IS ALMOST CRYING [Wonkette]
MSNBC.com has a fun tool on their site called the "Democracy Dashboard" with a real-time needle quivering between Republican and Democrat as the results came in — note the Senate needle at dead center. Pretty exciting times. Via TVNewser, the roundup: CNN's got a full-on results page with tabbed results (though at first glance the stylized "AV" smushed together in "America Votes 2006" grabs the eye to "AVOTES" when you first go there). At Fox the "Election Tracker" is a bar at the top with a track of the balance of power numerically and visually, and a drop-down menu for the states. But a scroll-down does lead to other news, which is why ETP can now bring you more news about Britney Spears' divorce from Kevin Federline — apparently the timing was significant not because of the election but because of the pre-nup: K-Fed's settlement amounts increases per year of marriagfe, and cash-strapped Brit wanted to get in under the wire. Ah, young love.
Claire McCaskill has been voted in as Senator of Missouri, defeating incumbent Jim Talent, who hadn't really given voters reason to complain yet was swept out with the big blue wave. It could, of course, have just been that big blue wave; Lord knows it's been enough elsewhere. However, it's worth looking at the effect of the Michael J. Fox pro-stem cell research ad on McCaskill's campaign. Though Fox taped spots for Maryland and Wisconsin, the Missouri spot hit first, and was the one that flew around YouTube and captured the sympathy and attention of so many people...and drew the ire of Rush Limbaugh which took it to a new level of national attention and outrage (well, except for Matt Lauer). That put McCaskill and her campaign on the national stage, and ratcheted up the stakes a bit. McCaskill herself demurred a bit tonight on MSNBC (gamely chatting at something like 2 a.m.), noting that on the ground in Missouri there were very much issues of accountability and Iraq, but she also acknowledged the upside to the furor: "Rush Limbaugh's reaction to the Michael J. Fox video certainly helped raise me a lot of money, and I'm very grateful to him for that!" Still, there's no doubt that the power of that video, combined with Fox's celebrity (not to mention all the callbacks to his young Republican Alex P. Keaton), had a very real impact in this election.
