A couple of tidbits

Well, so much for my powers as a prophet.

And check this out if you believe there's no such thing as media bias. One for the "Now if a conservative had done that . . ." files.

Back to blogging

One thing's for sure -- blogging consumes more time and energy than I would have expected. Good thing I'm only an obscure beginner; otherwise the hiatus (no computer access last weekend; not much time since then) might have ticked some people off!

Anyway . . . from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"Opinionated 'news' sells -- at what cost?"

The focus here is largely on TV reporting (or "reinterpreting," as one observer might put it). More reflections on what kind of reporting gets more attention, and whether people are more drawn to reporting that reflects their own views.

Some election follow-up

A very interesting phenomenon is going on with the conservative new media, post-election. They're using the momentum gathered in the election to push for another big goal -- keeping Arlen Specter, the Republican that conservatives love to loathe, from becoming Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. In fact, I've rarely seen them push so hard for anything. Kathryn Lopez at NRO is leading the charge (check out the posts from Friday, Nov. 5, in particular), and websites have suddenly sprung up dedicated completely to this one cause (see here). According to NRO -- and they're generally pretty accurate -- phones on the Hill have been ringing off the hook. (I did some e-mailing myself.) It will be fascinating to see if this really works -- just one more example of how much power the new media really wields.

The fat lady sang

So Kerry conceded. I tried to blog about it earlier today but the software had a glitch. (This would make me feel like a rank amateur if the "Kerry Spot" at NRO hadn't had the same thing happen yesterday. Of course, I AM a rank amateur, but at least I'm in good company.) Anyway, I have to give the man credit for not dragging this thing out.

Oh, for the love of . . .

Not AGAIN. Mr. Kerry, will you please just concede already? Don't make us go through this a second time, especially when there's no mathematical possibility you can get Ohio.

And why won't anyone call Iowa or New Mexico?

I shouldn't have gone to bed!!

Calm down, deep breath -- don't sweat it. All the numbers indicate Bush pulled it off. Thank God.

(Liberal friends and classmates, if you ever drop by here -- well, I did tell you this would be a conservative blog! It's meant to be part of "mystory," after all. But please don't think I'm trying to rub your nose in anything. Just expressing a little relief, that's all. Oh, who am I kidding. A LOT of relief.)

UPDATE: Excellent post from The Horserace Blog about MSM coverage. Including Fox's. Fox vs. the bloggers -- now there's a story I wouldn't have predicted.

Ha!

Just thought of something: Here I am blogging in my pajamas (with a little help from chocolate). Guess that CBS guy was right after all.

Not for long, though. I'm off to bed, Ohio or no Ohio (glad to see the trend's holding there, though). Will probably watch the news from there, though. More in the morning.

The future of elections?

Interesting phenomenon in one No. Va. household at least. My parents spent the evening glued to the TV; I spent it glued to the Internet. I found the company of the bloggers far more congenial than that of the talking heads, even those on the network (you know, the evil one) that I like best. Everyone bought into some wildly inaccurate exit polls, but the bloggers less than the TV commentators. The bloggers, in fact, were very, VERY eloquent on the subject of exit polling (someone on NRO, I think, predicted this would be a "dagger in the heart" of the practice. Not so fast, I'd say. The CBS memos were supposed to be a dagger in the heart of Dan Rather).

Anyway, just from my own personal experience, the home of the new media is not a bad place to spend election night. Will have to look for whatever numbers are out there about how many people have spent it the same way.

I'm about to drop, but may stay up a little longer just to see what happens in Ohio . . .

Blogs of note

The great Mark Steyn is blogging tonight. A comforting person to have around, at least if you're a conservative. I don't like how close things look right now, but may as well look on the bright side, at least for now.

Also, don't remember if I mentioned it earlier (I have a feeling that by the time tonight's over, I won't remember my own name), but The Horserace Blog appears to be a good place to go for numbers analysis.

MSM vs. Blogs

From Kathryn Lopez on NRO: THE BLOGOSPHERE IS IN 2004 WHAT THE MSM WAS IN 2000 [KJL]
That's what Hugh Hewitt says. I'm not sure the exit polling reporting was that bad. I hope not.

Definitely TMI. But again, I cautioned. Think Drudge did too. Maybe everyone should have played basketball midday.

***

Interesting. Also, the hordes at FreeRepublic are complaining that Fox News was making the election sound like a "postmortem" before the polls were even closed. Gee, and here I thought Fox News was supposed to be the official mouthpiece of the Republican Party. Another illusion shattered.

Heh

Mary Matalin: "The bloggers need to do some lamaze." Now there's a quote I need to remember.

It seems . . .

. . . that exit polls are unreliable and skewed. And scary. But still, unreliable.

And above all, addictive. Even when you've been told they're unreliable.

Won't get into the whole mess now, except to say that Drudge and NRO took cues from the MSM (mainstream media) and released some exit poll numbers that were 59% female to 41% male. Not such a good idea, guys. Now conservatives all over the Web are having a collective hissy fit. Me, I wouldn't have minded so much that they posted skewed numbers (except, of course, that I nearly had a heart attack for a few minutes there), as long as they'd mentioned that they were skewed.

But at least -- if I may be totally self-centered and shallow for a moment -- it's all fodder for the semester project! Not to mention that it should aid the Bush get-out-the-vote effort.

More to come.

Happy Election Day!

We're starting off today with this item of interest from the Weekly Standard, concerning the Tom Daschle race in South Dakota. Not really the race that interests me most -- not even close -- but there's some intriguing stuff about the role of the new media on the second page, which is in keeping with the spirit of this little blog.

More on THE race of the day later.

(Oh, and I've also fixed the clock here. Hopefully it will stay fixed!)

Update, 8:35: Hugh Hewitt has some thoughts on the Daschle matter as well. Best quote: "This tactic--filing foolish and far-fetched last-minute lawsuits brought before friendly judges who issue rulings that will be overturned only after the damage at the polls is done--cannot work anymore, not as long as courtrooms are open and there's a WiFi around."

Into the home stretch

One more day till the election! I may try my hand at a little election-night blogging, just to get a feel for it. I wish to goodness I had a TV in this room, but then, I suppose the exercise of constantly running back and forth may be good for me.

A couple of links of interest: In the New York Times (free registration required), members of the mainstream media are sounding awfully defensive about criticism from bloggers. If you can't stand the heat, guys . . .

And thanks to NRO for linking to The Horserace Blog, which provides some pretty helpful analysis of all those wildly fluctuating polls.

(Not so many "oldies but goodies" lately, I know -- I'm starting to realize that blogging needs to be more up-to-the-minute than that. I may just start posting some of the older links that I need on my website.)