The Media Was Our Election Night Loser
A grim journey through partisan network coverage
For days, if not weeks, our media pundits have been telling us not to expect a winner on election night. The left demanded patience and voiced their concerns that Trump would prematurely declare victory and turn to the courts for support.
Yet when election night came, those calls for patience went out the window. Instead, Democrats melted down on television and social media, treating every Trump red-state victory as a sign of certain defeat. It may not have been their fault.
While the major cable networks were still doing set up and exposition, the New York Times already appeared determined to induce full-on post-traumatic stress disorder. As early as 7:30 p.m., the newspaper’s online election coverage had all the subtlety of an instrument-only airplane landing: three needles — just like the one they used to condemn Hillary Clinton’s chances four years ago — all pointing to the right. The most important of them was already pinned, indicating a 92% probability of a Trump victory in…
