In the space of no more than 3 minutes he said “This race is cracklin’ like a hickory fire” and “Jeb Bush must be mad as a rained on rooster.”
Less than 20 minutes later, he described Bush’s lead as “shakier than cafeteria jello.” Moments later he reported Bush “is sweeping through the South like a tornado through a trailer park.”
I found myself simultaneously repulsed and transfixed, as to a train wreck in progress.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
And you have to love it when the best modern technology can give us is Dan Rather’s finger on his computer screen, and Tim Russert with a dry erase board. Who’s been cutting the network news budgets again?
What were your favorite moments of the election coverage?
You covered 'em all, Dinsdale. I was wondering if anyone else was thinking the same things as me about Danny Boy. His “folksy” coverage, combined with moments when I thought he was going to have a seizure, made me jumpier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. (sorry, couldn’t resist)
What got me was Tom Brokaw’s use (overuse) of metaphors. Just before one commercial break, he said one, and I mentioned how he was stuck on metaphors. Then Tom said, “We’ll be back with more football metaphors after this.” ROTFL!
Over here in the UK I only watched about 15 minutes of coverage on the BBC before I switched to BBC Radio 5, but there was a doozy on the telly. It was very early on in the count and Peter Snow, the eternally hyperactive Election Correspondant was on rare form…
“There are new results coming in! Let’s see how this affects the count! As you can see (jabbing at computer-generated image) Bush is leading by 28 electoral votes to 3! AND NOW!! WITH THE NEW RESULTS IN!! BUSH IS STILL LEADING! (computer image shuffles around a bit) BUSH IS LEADING BY 28 VOTES TO 3! THIS IS A REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENT FOR”
at which point Snow realized that actually, there were no new results in, and muttered “Back to you in the studio, John.”
“Bush raced out to a quick lead, but now he’s watering his pony.”
“The Florida race is hot enough to peel housepaint.”
And this a.m. I heard a tape of him congratulating the candidates at 1:30 a.m. thusly:
“Let’s give a tip of the stetson to vice president Gore, but let’s give a big tip, a hip hip hooray, and a great big Texas ‘Howdy’ to President-elect George Bush.”
Get that man some chewin baccy and let him pull his rockin chair up to the old cracker barrel.
Either Brokaw and Rather are getting incredibly old (I even remember when Brokaw was hosting the “Today Show” in 1975) or they both have been reading their teleprompters for so long that they have a hard time doing “up to the minute” news/election coverage.
Yeah, I thought both did a crappy job reporting the results.
I liked MSNBC’s felt map of the U.S. (courtesy of Mrs. Brophy’s 3rd grade) and the bimbo in the tight sweater who had the awesome, Vanna like responsibility of putting the state shaped cut outs on the map. My favorite part was when she looked over her shoulder for some help in finding the state of Michigan. “Duh, where does the glove thingy go?”
Also, Chris Matthews can kiss my native Floridian ass, we are not “all from somewhere else”.
Yea, I was flipping between CBS, NBC and Fox. Besides the metaphores (“It’s so close you’d need a cigarette paper to get between these two” or somesuch) on CBS, the white board on NBC (“You know, Tom, I keep coming back to my board…”) and the commentator’s cell phone going off on Fox (Paula Zhaun: “Looks like someone had a hot date who isn’t happy.”)
He did NOT say this, did he? Holy smokes!
Did he say anything like
“Well, the numbers are in from Arkansas- I’ll bet the elections sites there had more feet then teeth in 'em!”
Yeah, zette, I actually wrote that one down I was so astounded.
And when they pulled Fla back he said something along the lines of, “Mabel, get outta the kitchen and come in here and watch the telly. This thing is really heating up.”
The best part was my kids, age 9 and 12, were watching it with me, so we were able to mack him as a family.
Lnix, my buddy told me the same thing bout the bimbo and the colorforms. He said her hand would waver back and forth as she frantically tried to figure which space the cut-out fit in, as if her indecision would not be noticeable on a close up nationwide video feed. I can almost imagine if she had trouble with Colorado and Wyoming, or maybe Mississippi and Alabama. (Hey, there’s no reason someone on national news has to be as smart as my kids were before they started frigging kindergarten!) But Michigan? I believe my buddy said she was similarly confused over W. Va. Gotta love it!
i missed dan. i watched and listened (you can pick up abc on the radio) to abc. peter jennings did rather well for a canadian. he just needs a bit of help with missori.
