What I expect now...

[sleigh]

The news mongers want news. They want conflict and excitement and drama. There's no conflict, excitement, or drama in "by all indications, the election's pretty much over and Obama's going to win in a walk." You even have Real Clear Politics (not exactly a liberal site) saying that Obama currently has enough electoral votes locked up to win (286, by their numbers). Yet until yesterday, CNN's count still had Obama under 270 (they now have him at 277); MSNBC's electoral map has Obama still at 264. Even that liberal bastion, the paper that makes right wingers froth at the mouth, the NY Times, has Obama at 264.

There's no liberal bias. There's a bias against elections that aren't close and therefore newsworthy.

So what I expect to hear now from all the media outlets is variations on "McCain is making up ground and things are tightening up! This is gonna be a close one! A nailbiter! Sturm und drang!" I saw it starting today on MSNBC, with two of the talking heads saying that -- despite the fact that every single instant poll on the debate indicated that Obama was the clear winner and did the best job of swaying undecided voters -- "I think McCain won this one and the polls are wrong. I see McCain making this race much tighter on the next few weeks." They followed that up with a panel of six undecided voters, three of whom said they were now going to vote for McCain. "See!" the talking heads exclaimed. "There! That proves it."

Expect it. And because they're also talking about it all the time, it may turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Comments

[davidbcoe.livejournal.com]

I wrote much the same thing about a changing media narrative on my blog yesterday. I think actually that McCain's performance last night made that narrative more difficult (thought Matt Drudge is doing his best to make it happen). Every report I've seen and heard, including several focus groups, have shown Obama winning handily and winning over undecided voters. But I totally agree that the "McCain Comeback Story" is one that the media is itching to tell.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read your post after I'd written mine -- great minds and all, eh?

We'll see what happens....

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

They are already saying that Obama is losing his lead in the polls. It will be depressing if the media gets to decide the election because they wanted to have some fun.