Breaking News from CNN: The Election's Over!

When former FCC Commissioner Newton Minow famously observed that television was a "vast wasteland," cable news hadn't even been invented yet. With hundreds of channels in today's media marketplace Minow's wasteland has grown even vaster -- but narrower as well. The bandwidth occupied by CNN, for example, is a black hole that lays to waste intelligent thought, responsible journalism and viewer sanity.

Take Wolf Blitzer (please!). How many times an hour does he refer to "the best political team on television?" Enough to make you wonder just how secure the network really is with that assertion? And when he soberly announces "you're in the situation room" am I the only one who wants to say, "no I'm not, I'm in my living room!"

Still, I've refrained from throwing ping pong balls at the screen when Blitzer is on because I care about the subject he's talking about. That's why I was so offended when Blitzer announced the "breaking news" that the electoral map had changed and four states that had previously been listed as "toss ups" were now being given to Obama. "Obama now has 231 of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win," Blitzer announced, "while John McCain has 194."

Excuse me? Have we had the election yet? Or are the networks so addicted to the excitement of election night coverage that they are turning their ratings-boosting primary coverage into a nightly drama, instead of having to wait until November to do it again? The networks' addiction to exit polls, tracking polls, spin and conflict make elections seem like just another reality TV show, only with cheaper prizes. "Who wants to be president" isn't as compelling a question as "who wants to be a millionaire" or "who wants to be America's top model or new idol." Maybe if CNN gave the runner-up in the presidential campaign a record contract they'd do better in the ratings. (Although as much as I like Hillary Clinton, I'm not sure I want to hear her sing).

It's alarming when the media tries to remove voter participation from the political process, when they shift from reporting the news to making it themselves. I'm reminded of the old Groucho Marx line about the fellow "who stuffed spaghetti with bicarbonate of soda, thus causing and curing indigestion at the same time." And during the 2004 campaign, in an article about an experiment to measure whether Republican and Democratic advertising lit up different parts of the brain, I cited an old science fiction story about a future where elections were determined by a single voter hooked up to a computer. The lesson in both these examples is that technology can go too far in the pursuit of democracy.

Besides offering employment to women from the Planet of Big Hair and men with shiny teeth, I've often wondered what purpose CNN serves in today's media marketplace. PR people know that in its ravenous appetite for material, the network will take just about any bait offered them and won't dilute their press releases with much original reporting.

After the networks started to broadcast exit polls, they were pressured to hold back on releasing them until voting had ended. Now, it seems we need a new rule to keep CNN's premature electulation in check. Tell them to hold off on awarding electoral votes until we actually start voting. Ratings are fine, but give democracy a chance.

Follow William Klein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/William_Klein

Comments

[darthdarcy]

MSNBC and CNN won't report the issues they won't show you the wars..they just talk about the fluff of the Candidates endlessly ad nausea...

They are doing nothing to educate the public on the reality of the issues only Countdown ever does that and they still haven't explained the market manipulation of the Oil prices or the Commodities and Futures Modernization Act Enron wrote....and that is the biggest topic for everyone...

Thank God for C-Span...!

[larry278]

The reasons for not repairing your TV & cancelling cable service keep coming.

[Charmed]

Thank you so much for this article...I can't watch Wolf or Cambell Brown...I like Cafferty (grumpy old man that he is but he always make me smile. They need to figure out what news is again.

[Lellie]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this article!!

I'm sick to death of dear old Wolf...could do with considerably more of Jack Cafferty (who has Wolf's number, by the way!).

With the millions of dollars CNN has to research stories of importance from all around the world that would educate ALL of us about each other, creating understanding and breaking down barriers, it's absolutely criminal that their "US and the US Election as the Centre of the Universe" attitude has usurped what started as a truly innovative idea for a network. On their 25th anniversary, Ted Turner said exactly the same thing...of course, he was ignored.

[Merlin7]

CNN and the other networks apparently have no shame. In spite of the recent huge scandal about their hiring certain retired military officers as consultants -- officers alleged to have personal financial interests in war industries -- the networks are again featuring military retirees as "experts." I suppose the nets are gearing up for Profitable Folly 2: Widening the War in Afghanistan.

I swear to God, sometimes I feel like I'm living in the Soviet Union circa 1952.

[leahlex]

CNN ans wolfe make me sick. They are soooo inthe tank for The One. Its's just disgusting. MSNBC is not much better. Cnn has been horrible since ted Turner sold it.

[dexxjones]

i stopped watching cnn when all they wanted to talk about was palestine and israel even as horrible things were unfolding right here (priest scandal/anything involving bush)

i found out later that blitzer had been a lobbiest for AIPAC and it made total sense. cnn? i think not.

[jmpurser]

Does anyone remember CNN from the late '80s and early '90s? Man that was a news channel. Man they fell so far so fast I can still hardly believe it.

[InofTouch]

and yet in those late 80's and early 90's...weren't we still bitching about this same issue today as it was yesturday ago.

[allonfla]

The MSM misses the long democratic primaries so they want to make November 4th last almost as long. Then, the day after the GE they will spend all day going over every "prediction" they made and compare it to the actual outcome Blah, blah, blah all the live long day.