A New Kind of Election Coverage

First, some background.  Those of you who know me know I love C-SPAN.  I also read a very good political website named Politico.  


In the DC area Channel 8 is a news channel, this is the local medium for the Politico coverage.  C-SPAN is also providing coverage for the nation on C-SPAN I and C-SPAN radio.  i commend C-SPAN for providing this broadcast.  


Politico has coverage of Super Tuesday. You can live stream it from the Politico website, but it can be hard to watch. This is the first time I have seen it on TV.  It has been so entertaining and informative.  The set is very simple - a very small table, swirling chairs and two computers on the small table. The anchors tweet and check emails during the broadcast.  After Mike Allen kept coming on stage and kneeling to report a story or offer some analysis, they finally pulled up a chair for him to sit on.  


No surreal super talking heads, only the reporters and editors of the Politico. These people are on the ground. The commentary and coverage certainly beats CNN and MSNBC.  I do not detect a bias or over inflated egos you see on other channels.  In fact, I do not think these are TV trained correspondents, I think they are print journalists.  It kind of shows and that makes it worth my time. 


An example of how different this coverage is - the telecast was scheduled to end at 10:30 PM (they thought they could call Ohio). Instead, the anchor team voted, yes voted, to continue reporting until mid night.  


They encourage Tweets, texts, and emails.  In fact, the men want to go on past midnight because the public through social media asked for the coverage to continue.  Maggie wanted to stop. 


If you had a bunch of friends over to watch an election night (which I would love to do and yes, I am a political junkie), you would like this kind of interaction. The anchors laugh, have fun and disagree without being disagreeable. You can hear them whisper when going to a travelling correspondent. I am thoroughly enjoying it. 


I am back to watching CNN with their multi-million set and high powered (and priced) talking heads/analysts.  It is even less interesting than before I discovered the Politico and C-SPAN team. 


So, I sure regret the striking of the mid night hour.  But, on the positive side, I have future primary coverage to look forward to. CNN and MSNBC, look in the rear view mirror.  Bring on the Politico and C-SPAN teams!!!