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Who’s Covering What on Election Night

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Hip-hop video blogger and New York radio host Jay Smooth, who has appeared in this space during the campaign, delivers a plea to young people for Election Day (www.illdoctrine.com).

Technological Innovations, but Few Diversity Surprises

The coverage of election night — the culmination of what seems like a two-year campaign marathon — will be marked in the news media by technological innovations, but few diversity surprises for those who have followed coverage during the primary season and the presidential debates.

Rare will be the mainstream network with a journalist of color in the anchor seat for any part of the day, seven years after the once-familiar face of Bernard Shaw left CNN for retirement.

Some networks are responding to concerns about voter irregularities. CNN said it will assemble "go teams" of correspondents and producers who will report on the irregularities as well as break election news. Throughout the day, CNN’s Ali Velshi is to anchor reports on voting irregularities from the "go teams," and legal experts plan to track and analyze those issues across the country, a news release said. Other networks, such as ABC and NBC, also mentioned the voter-integrity issue in their announcements.

The racial dimension of the historic election, which could produce the nation’s first African American president, is to be acknowledged on Wednesday by National Public Radio’s midday newsmagazine "Day to Day," which plans to broadcast from the heart of Los Angeles’ black community — whether Barack Obama wins or loses. "Host Alex Chadwick will spend the morning at a coffee shop owned by Magic Johnson Enterprises in the Ladera Heights section of the city, speaking with African-American leaders, thinkers and just folks grabbing a cup of coffee," NPR said.

NPR’s "News & Notes" begins a month-long series on race in America on Thursday. "’News & Notes’ and host Farai Chideya plan to examine issues of race that have emerged from this election: issues of privilege, perceptions and identity, and the lines – visible and invisible – between the races that still exist. The first installment in this series examines how the issue of race played into the race for the White House," according to the network.

With a nod to the unprecedented worldwide attention generated by the election, NPR will also present "Talk of the World"¬†on Thursday, an international call-in special hosted by NPR’s Neal Conan that will be streamed live at www.NPR.org, with a panel of opinion leaders who will analyze how changes at the White House will affect U.S. relations around the world.¬† (More on NPR coverage here.)

On television, there will be those bells and whistles.

"Election night is like the Summer Olympics and Super Bowl for network news divisions, and each is carting out eye-popping technical toys to draw viewers," Edward C. Baig and Jon Swartz wrote for USA Today.

On CNN, for example, instead of the split screen or window TV viewers might typically see during live remote interviews, a campaign spokesman or spokeswoman will be projected as a three-dimensional hologram, making it appear as if he or she is in the Manhattan studio with anchor Wolf Blitzer, the USA Today story said.

"’The real challenge this year is new stuff that will travel easily on multiplatforms,’ says Andrew Tyndall, publisher of TyndallReport.com, which monitors television network news. ‘Not only must this look good on TV, but on portable devices like cellphones.’"

"There are plenty of reasons for the gimmicks: This year’s race has been intensely followed, and is expected to draw tens of millions of voters – and viewers – on Nov. 4. Significantly more people are expected to watch Tuesday night’s results than in 2004, when about 64 million viewed election-night results on network and cable TV, according to Nielsen."

Newspapers, too, are embracing the new technology.

"The Washington Post, along with a host of syndication partners such as The Dallas Morning News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Denver Post, will air six hours of live video election coverage," Abbey Klaassen reported Monday in Advertising Age.

Among the Post journalists of color scheduled to appear are editorial writer Jonathan Capehart, associate editor Kevin Merida and reporter Perry Bacon, Jim Brady, who directs the Post’s Web site, told Journal-isms. All have been covering the campaign.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter Thursday to the heads of seven networks asking each to hold off declaring a winner while voting polls are still open. Dingell said his concern was that a premature call "could depress voter turnout," Variety reported last week. 

According¬†to Reuters, "One important step taken by news organizations before the 2008 election was to upgrade the system used in exit polls — the surveys of voters conducted just after they cast their ballots that are often used to ‘call’ a given state for a particular candidate." Over-reliance on exit polls proved misleading in both 2000 and 2004, the story noted.

"Should all signs on Tuesday point to an Obama landslide, news directors say they will have no choice but to report the obvious.

"Still, they are sensitive to striking a balance that avoids stating election trends as foregone conclusions while people in another part of the country are still voting."

Here is some of how each network plans to include journalists of color in its coverage:

In addition, "TV news organizations from around the globe will be covering the Obama-McCain showdown on Nov. 4 in ways they’ve never done before," as Richard Huff reported¬†in the New York Daily News.

"For one night, television will turn this historic vote, which will set the tone for the country and the world for at least the next four years, into an international spectacle perhaps only rivaled by the turn of the millennium."

"The BBC and BBC America, for example, will be broadcasting to more than 200 countries — and calling on former ABC News fixture Ted Koppel to help guide the coverage.

"Offering an Arab perspective, Al Jazeera English will reach more than 50 million viewers with a 12-hour broadcast from Washington, D.C., with reporters stationed in several U.S. cities and more than a dozen countries. Even TV5Monde USA, a French pay-cable channel, will offer seven hours of live coverage from Manhattan."

The South Asian Journalists Association announced a Webcast for Wednesday, "What the US Election Results Mean for South Asia and South Asians in America."

"A distinguished panel of experts and journalists react to the results the day after the elections. What’s the future of South Asia-US relations? How will South Asians in America be affected? Which South Asians might get appointed to senior positions in the government? We will also be briefed on how the various South Asian American candidates did at the state and local levels," it said.

The Associated Press, which has fielded a very pale coverage team throughout the campaign, and in Ron Fournier a Washington bureau chief accused of tilting toward McCain, includes labor reporter Jesse J. Holland and race relations reporter Jesse Washington, both black journalists, on its political reporting roster, "More than 500 AP staffers make-up the 2008 team covering the elections and counting the vote," it says.

U.S. Probes Leak of Story on Obama’s Aunt

"The government is investigating whether any laws were broken in the disclosure that Barack Obama‘s aunt was living in the country illegally," Eileen Sullivan reported¬†Sunday for the Associated Press.

"Obama’s half aunt, who is from Kenya, was ordered to leave the United States years ago after an immigration judge denied her request for asylum, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss the case.

"The woman, Zeituni Onyango, is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama’s late father.

"The Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked its inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility on Saturday to investigate whether any policies were violated when information about Onyango’s case was publicly disclosed, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. The Homeland Security Department, which oversees ICE, cannot disclose details about an individual’s immigration status.

"Information about Onyango’s case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release, just five days before the presidential election. Obama’s campaign strategist David Axelrod said people are suspicious about stories that surface so close to an election."

Papers Wrap Themselves in NRA’s Anti-Obama Ad

Four newspapers in Kentucky and three in Indiana arrived on doorsteps Monday in plastic bags with advertising from the National Rifle Association opposing the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, but the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and others refused the advertising.

The Courier-Journal and other newspapers would not accept the polyurethane bags not because of their advertising messages but because they would run so close to or on Election Day, according to Teresa Revlett, sales director for the Kentucky Press Association, wrote Jack Brammer of the Lexington  (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which participated in the advertising.

The NRA bought the bags through the press association. Revlett told Journal-isms Monday that the newspapers wrapped in the advertising bags were circulated without incident.

In Richmond, however, plans to carry the advertising "caused deep concerns in the newsroom as well as with some people in corporate leadership, sources say," the alternative newspaper Style Weekly reported. At a staff meeting, "They worried the wrap might suggest a news bias against Obama that runs counter to the longstanding separation of news, opinion and advertising that is central to maintaining public trust in any news operation. ‘There were some very bitter comments from our executive editor [Glenn Proctor],’ says a staffer who attended the meeting. Proctor, the source says, made clear his dismay over the ad."

Proctor referred Journal-isms to a company spokeswoman, who has not responded.

The plastic bags are tailored to each state. "Vote Freedom First," the bags in Kentucky say on one side, adding, "Defend Freedom NRA Defeat Obama," according to the Herald-Leader.

On the other side, they say "Vote Freedom First Mitch McConnell for U.S. Senate."

The Indiana bags have the Obama message on one side and Republican incumbent "Mitch Daniels Governor" on the other.

The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk also rejected the ad, that paper’s Julian Walker reported. He quoted Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute: "I think it would be hard for voters, in that moment, to discern whether this is the paper’s point of view or someone else’s. You don’t want to do something on Election Day that essentially alienates your readers."

But "The Herald-Leader opted to distribute the bag because of its belief that free speech extends to advertising, said Publisher Timothy M. Kelly," that paper reported.

Belo’s Spanish-Language Al Dia Lays Off Five

Al Dia, the Spanish-language publication of the Dallas Morning News, has laid off five employees as part of the cuts mandated by the parent A.H. Belo Corp., Publisher Alejandro Sanchez Sobrino told Journal-isms on Monday.

They are Elda Gonzalez, translator; Carlos Moreno, Web editor, Ben Torres, photographer; Liliana Vargas, reporter, and Isaac Lasky, marketing director.

A free newspaper, Al Dia publishes Monday through Saturday with a circulation of about 43,000 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Sanchez said, and 120,000 on Wednesday and Saturdays. It is delivered to homes.

The losses leave about 23 editorial employees, he said.

Brendan M. Case reported Oct. 24 in the Dallas Morning News that, "The company expects to achieve annual savings of nearly $30 million from the staff cuts, including $24 million from the voluntary departure of 412 employees and $5 million from the layoff of 90 people."

Five of 22 people laid off at the Dallas Morning News on Oct. 24, the same day the cuts took place at Al Dia, were journalists of color.

Copy of New Yorker’s Obama Cartoon Nets $1,800

David Rapp, who stepped down two years ago as editor of Congressional Quarterly, put in the winning bid for a signed copy of the infamous satirical New Yorker magazine cover that caused a firestorm¬†in July. It featured Barack Obama in "Muslim" garb and his wife, Michelle, as an Afroed¬†’60s radical.

"I like a lot of political cartoons that capture a point in time," Rapp told Journal-isms. "This captures a moment in history and will be remembered forever."

Rapp said he had not intended to bid on the cartoon, which was part of an annual "Cartoons and Cocktails" benefit at the National Press Club Oct. 23 for the Young D.C. teen newspaper, Cartoonist Rights Network International, which defends cartoonists persecuted abroad, and the Eric Friedheim Library at the press club.

But Rapp, who is now in the travel business, said his wife encouraged him. He placed the winning bid of $1,800.

Rapp said he thought the cartoon, framed and signed by cartoonist Barry Blitt, was the perfect counter "to all the b—- being spread about" the Obamas and said it could assume even more significance after Tuesday’s vote. It could be "one of the pieces of the story that led to this guy’s election."

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