Here are a few of my favorites from last night's election coverage:
MSNBC's Dashboard: Among everything else about this feature, I love the animations. Be sure to click on the "Live Results" button-WOW! Now THAT is cool.
CNN's AmericaVotes2006: This is the cleanest page I have ever seen for keeping track of what a network has projected. CNN makes it easy to keep up with massive numbers of races in one spot. CNN also allowed users to enter up to 20 races that they want to automatically track. The projections are listed in chronological order with the newest ones at the top.
USA Today compiled the most useful roundup of what exit polls show. It is simple, easy to read and compares attitudes on issues to the last election. You will be able to use this data table for follow-ups today.
VideotheVote.com: Just as the group hoped, people all over the country talked with voters about problems at the precincts -- then they posted those videos on YouTube. I can imagine that, in 2008, this could be made even cooler if local media got local folks to submit videos. Voters reported machine problems, insufficient numbers of machines and lines so long that people were leaving before they voted. Look at video #147, for example, in which a woman in Colorado said it took three hours to cast her vote. Number 145 is from Ohio, where
Election Protection intervened on behalf of a voter who was about to be turned away. It is quite a story. This kind of "citizen journalism," I think, is really very useful.
For more cool stuff, take a look at
the list my Poynter colleagues and I put together last night as we monitored everything from network and local TV to online news sites and blogs. Maybe you will have some stuff you loved that you will want to add to the list. Please do! We are looking for ideas that we can all use for 2008 election coverage.
Campaign Trash
Who is responsible for picking up the jillions of campaign signs that have littered the edges of our highways for months?
As an incentive to clean up the signs, a Rocky Mount, N.C. restaurant is offering a free sandwich to anyone who brings in a sign.
Candidates on the Day After
I pass this along just for you to consider. Years ago, I covered a very wealthy fellow who was running for office. During the campaign, he always drove a Buick. The day after he got trounced in the election, he showed up in a Mercedes, which he had kept parked in the garage during the campaign.
How do candidates, especially unsuccessful ones, change after an election?
Investigating 911 Complaints
WSMV investigative reporter Nancy Amons is back with another terrific investigation. This time Nancy looked into the complaint file at the local 911 emergency call center. She found plenty.
In one case, she discovered that Nashville's 911 system had been turned off for 33 minutes. Everyone who called 911 in that time got a busy signal. That includes a retirement home calling on behalf of a critically ill patient who died waiting for an ambulance.
The lesson here, Nancy tells me, is that journalists should read the complaint files at 911 centers to see what problems the public is having with the system it depends on.
Citizenship for Sale
WTVJ in Miami found out why thousands of illegal immigrants were flocking to a Miami area strip mall. They were trying to buy membership in the Pembina Indian Nation -- a little-known North Dakota tribe not recognized by the U.S. government. The immigrants hoped it would be a way to stay in the country legally.
As you might guess, it was a scam, and the real tribal leaders are furious.
FCC Reverses Indecency Ruling on News Content
The FCC has reversed a ruling that had classified the word "bullshitter" as indecent. The Commission will let the word slide, but only because it was said during a news interview. One commissioner was uncomfortable with calling an interview with a cast member of a reality-TV show on a television morning show news.
The ruling, on its face, seems to give some hope that even loosely defined news content will be treated differently from gratuitous profanity in programming intended purely for entertainment.
But the FCC was careful not to say it is granting a "news exemption."
Television Week explains what the ruling, handed down at midnight Monday, means:
The FCC ruled that the use of the word "bullshitter" on CBS's "The Early Show" wasn't indecent because it occurred during a news segment -- even though that interview was with a contestant on the network's reality show "Survivor: Vanuatu." In the other case, the agency dismissed complaints about episodes of ABC's "NYPD Blue" on procedural grounds.
The two cases were among several the FCC had used in March to try to illustrate what does and does not constitute indecency. Monday's ruling in the "Early Show" case is unlikely to lay the issue to rest, as FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called the decision "arbitrary, subjective and inconsistent."
In fact, Adelstein goes on to argue that the morning show interview does not seem much like news or public affairs programming so much as it seems like a commercial plug for CBS’s own show. He wonders why it gets special treatment when it comes to indecent language.
TV Week continues:
The FCC announced the reversals minutes before midnight, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin issued a statement saying that "The Early Show" case troubled him because the profanity occurred during the show's interview with a contestant on "Survivor." Still, the FCC deferred to CBS's contention that the interview of an entertainment show celebrity on a news program was a news segment that shouldn't be subject to indecency rules.
"It is oftentimes difficult to distinguish between true news programming and infotainment. While I found the interview with a contestant on 'Survivor: Vanuatu' to be extremely close to that line, I believe the Commission's exercise of caution with respect to news programming was appropriate in this instance," Mr. Martin said in a statement.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected. ReligionLink posts a special election edition that gives journalists resources...
