election 2008-related stories
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities, Reality-Free
What was the top TV story of the year? The choice was obvious to all of us, and probably all of you, too: The election. The 2008 race for the White House was not only historic, it was dramatic and played out more on TV with recognizable star personas than any election in recent memory.
And like a great TV show, it was a season-long run of highs and lows, tension and release, defeat and victory. Along the way, Americans made a choice about who will run the country for the next four years, but they were also entertained by a near constant barrage of media coverage in the form of maximum cable news, thousands of commercials, daily political commentary both serious and comic, a plethora of debates, and -- naturally --
Saturday Night Live's take on it all.
It all started about a year ago in the cold of Iowa and New Hampshire...
Continue reading Top TV Stories of 2008: The election - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 23rd 2008 11:02AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: News, OpEd, Video, The Daily Show, Web, Festivus, Reality-Free
... one great TV moment.2008 was filled with great TV moments, more than most years. So when I asked the
TV Squad crew what they thought the greatest moment this year was, I got a lot of responses: the Fey / Palin "summit" on
SNL, Letterman going off an an absent John McCain, any of Michael Phelps' Olympic victories, the spectacular opening ceremonies in Beijing, the
finale of The Shield, any of the Presidential / VP debates, the Giants' upset of the Pats in the Super Bowl, and probably more that I can't even think of right now.
But they all seemed small in comparison to what happened in the late-night hours of Election Day, when Barack Obama got up in front of a crowd in Chicago's Grant Park and gave his acceptance speech. No matter what you think of Obama or his politics, it was a historic moment, and not just because Obama had just been elected the first African-American president. But the reason why it's the best
TV moment of 2008 is because... well, moments like this don't happen that much anymore, do they?
Continue reading On the 1st day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEO
Posted Nov 5th 2008 12:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
So now the election is over and we have a new President-elect. Congrats to Barack Obama.
We covered the coverage of the election last night on various stations, including
ABC,
CNN,
FOX News,
NBC,
MSNBC, and
Comedy Central. I covered
CBS to see how Katie Couric did on her first night as election anchor. I'm a fan of Katie's, and for the most part I haven't agreed with the criticisms against her (beyond the growing pains she and the show had when she started), and I think she did a fine job.
So let's go over the good and the bad.
Continue reading Election Night: CBS (final thoughts)
Posted Nov 5th 2008 1:14AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: News, Programming, Reality-Free
12:23: Wolf Blitzer just reminded us that this is, in fact, an historic occasion. He also assures us that the coverage will continue. I, however, will not. All in all, CNN's coverage was adequate, but pretty boring. The reason I choose CNN over the other news channels is because of the personalities. Campbell Brown, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper usually find ways to engage and amuse me, but not tonight. Everyone was pretty straightforward and dry. What do they think this is, network news? If I wanted straightforward and dry, I'd watch Charlie Gibson.
But hey. At least this election is over. See you in four years!
12:19: Obama finished speaking a good five minutes ago, yet nobody has broken in with commentary. That's either an admirable show of restraint or a sign that the CNN anchors are all busy getting drunk.
Continue reading Election Night: CNN (Part 3)
Posted Nov 5th 2008 12:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
Midnight: Coming tomorrow morning: post-game summary and thoughts about how
Katie did anchoring her first Presidential election night on CBS.
11:59: Obama starts his speech. Time to pay attention.
11:59: Waiting for Katie or somebody to mention Michelle Obama's flaming red and black dress.
11:58: OK, Obama taking the stage. They stop the music like at the start of movies when they stop the music and the coming attractions come on.
11:55: Katie asks Noonan to stick around until after the commercial, but they don't go to a commercial. Nice swell of music, though.
11:54: Peggy Noonan is back. Hey, isn't she usually on MSNBC or NBC?
11:45: Katie makes reference to
The Patty Duke Show! Something to do with the Udalls and twins, I think.
11:39: Katie corrects Greenfield yet again: it's Nevadda, not Nevahda. Greenfield says the election is over, he doesn't care anymore.
Continue reading Election Night: CBS (Part 3)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 11:40PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
MSNBC is perking along. Either they're getting better at the results or I'm getting more comfortable with all their bells and whistles and commentary.
8:48 David Gregory is good as a traffic cop. He's bouncing the focus around from Chuck to Chris to Ann to Lester really well. He's interviewing Obama's campaign chief strategist David Axelrod now. He doesn't look worried. He looks like Mr. Whipple, but he doesn't look worried.
8:55 Tom DeLay, former House Majority Leader -- is talking trash. He claims Nancy Pelosi is going to push President Obama around. Hmm...he sounds pretty bitter. Of course, he was forced to resign when he was indicted for election fraud.
Continue reading Election Night: MSNBC (Part 2)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 11:21PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
Everyone's getting bored now. Megyn is running around talking to people all over the set and trying to make love to her "launchpad," while others are handing out cookies and snacks. When the election is turning into a landslide (which is how Fox News would have us think), I guess they're at a loss as to how to fill the time. "We booked the whole night for this coverage. Vamp! Vamp!" For more on why I love Fox News Election coverage, flip to the other side.
I think it's time to shake things up. Go crazy and call the whole election for McCain. Or even Nader. People will look back on it fondly and you'll be infamous in history. Just picture Brit Morgan's dour skull with the skin melting off looking at the camera with the words "McCain Projected to Win Presidency" below him.
Legendary!Continue reading Election Night: Fox News (Part 2)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 10:29PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: News, Programming, Reality-Free
The continuing adventures of Anderson Cooper, Mr. Magoo and the magic board.
10:20: They've moved out to the lawn in Phoenix. The atmosphere there is quite a bit more, uh, subdued than in Chicago.
10:19: Yikes. Dana Bash looks more and more depressed each time they show her. She's reporting that McCain's camp has given up.
10:08: Wolf Blitzer: "Arkansas. Put that in John McCain's column right now." Is it wrong that that made me snicker? It doesn't even make sense!
9:59: Iowa was just called for Obama, and Anderson Cooper just asked what they're going to do when he gets to 270 electoral votes. "We leave!" was the reply. We'll see if that actually happens. Could we have an empty eleciton center soon? Check back for more coverage!
9:55: Roland Martin compared the Obama supporters in Grant Park to Lollapalooza. Meanwhile, back at the Biltmore, an unidentified old man is wandering around aimlessly on stage.
Continue reading Election Night: CNN (Part 2)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 10:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
More from
Katie and Company:
10:07: Switching over to see what PBS and FOX News are up to. Know why?
I'm a maverick.
9:49: Will I have another drink tonight? TOO CLOSE TO CALL.
9:42: I have a real crush on Peggy Noonan. Not sure why.
9:31: Is anyone even paying attention to the sides of the CBS HD screen? I'd rather see cartoons or Three Stooges shorts played, picture-in-picture style.
9:24: Schieffer and Greenfield both call the election after Ohio goes to Obama. That's it for the election! Good night everybody! You would think they'd let it go a little bit longer considering the 2000 fiasco.
9:04: McCain HQ is playing Eddie Money? No wonder he's behind.
8:50: Jeff Greenfield says "Sarah Palin was Norma Rae for two weeks, then she was somebody else." Maybe when they come back from commercial he'll say who. Any guesses?
8:49: Bob Schieffer says Katie partly responsible for Sarah Palin's fall. Katie says "keep it up Bob and you're next."
Continue reading Election Night: CBS (Part 2)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 9:35PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Programming, Reality-Free
Election night! Election night! Let's check out the folks at CNN. Is Wolf Blitzer going to lose his mind? Is Anderson Cooper going to be pretty? Is John King going to lovingly stroke the magic board? Let's find out.
9:00: That's what we've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more updates-- and maybe we'll have a new president. Not that CNN will project that.
8:59: Soledad O'Brien is looking at demographic information with Mr. Magoo. Poor Mr. Magoo can't work the touch screen because he's not tall enough. Hilariously, this comes at the point in which they're talking about how age is a factor in the way people vote.
8:57: Drink. They're not even making a projection in Arizona.
852: Can someone tell me what is up with these clean coal commercials? This is the 7,000th one I've seen today.
8:48: James Carville looks more and more like a reanimated corpse every day.
Continue reading Election Night: CNN (Part 1)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 7:55PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: News, OpEd, Reality-Free
Some quick notes on the Katie Couric-anchored election coverage on
The Tiffany Network:
7:26: They've gone to local coverage for a bit. Good time for my first gin and tonic of the evening. I'll be back later with more, and stay tuned for posts from CNN, MSNBC, and more.
7:18: Now Katie says "Can you hear me now? I sound like a Sprint commercial" to Obama spokesman. Can't she get any of her commercial icon references right tonight?!?
7:14: First glitch of the night: can't hear what Obama spokesman is saying. Katie goes to McCain spokesman instead. CBS IN THE TANK FOR MCCAIN!
7:07: CBS's "Magic Board" (or whatever they're calling it) isn't as good as CNN's. It's the Sony Walkman to CNN's iPod.
7:05: Jeff Greenfield is firing off sports/weather cliches to describe the election. I already miss Dan Rather and his Ratherisms: "This race is tighter than a cranberry muffin at an auto show."
Continue reading Election Night: CBS (Part 1)
Posted Nov 4th 2008 8:00AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Programming, Reality-Free
If you are not a Canadian, you probably didn't know we had federal elections in mid-October. However, Canadians know very well the U.S. election is going on right now and that the vote is today since we are neighbors and because American economy affects Canada's.
This past year, and especially since Obama and McCain really started to campaign a few weeks ago, the news airing on Canadian TV stations have all included some type of coverage and updates about the U.S. elections. Some of the 24-hour news stations even had special shows that lasted hours, for example, during the first presidential debate, to update us on the goings-on of the American election. So it's no surprise if that there is some sort of U.S. election coverage on Canadian TV channels tonight.
Continue reading Canadian TV coverage of the US elections
Posted Nov 3rd 2008 11:23AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Daily Show, Reality-Free
Feeling a little stressed out about Election Day? Worried you'll completely seize up with anxiety in the voting booth, collapse and not be found for several hours? Worried that the building will burst into flames and/or the Rapture will happen before anyone
does find you? Yeah. Yeah, me too. For those that want a little something to calm their nerves before/after they do their American duty and have already run out of horse tranquilizers, Comedy Central is running an
all-day marathon of the most recent episodes of
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report on November 4th.
Continue reading Daily Show and Colbert Report marathon for those that need a distraction
Posted Oct 24th 2008 11:00AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
Well, that concludes
Saturday Night Live's three week run of "Weekend Update Thursday." There were some good jokes here and there, including tonight's especially strong cold open, but looking back, we really could have done without these three episodes. Most of this material, election-related and otherwise, could have been bumped to the regular Saturday program without any problem. I'm sure we could come up with a list of sketches in the past few
SNLs that deserved to be replaced. Someone fix my time machine and let's get this job done. I don't want to hear any of that "There's no such thing as a flux capacitor" bullcrap.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (October 23, 2008) - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 17th 2008 10:26AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
I liked it. I laughed. Sure. I also laughed last week, but I can't quite remember what was so funny. These specials are pretty forgettable, bleeding into my
Saturday Night Live memory and then dropping into the recesses of my mind. Again, I understand the need to jump on the debate coverage as soon as possible, but I honestly could have held on until Saturday. Or maybe they were worried that everyone would be sick of Joe the Plumber by then. Well... too late.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (October 16, 2008) - VIDEOS
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