MSNBC's Election Coverage

While watching MSNBC’s coverage of the election, I noticed that they seemed fairly neutral. There were guests brought on talking about McCain, and there were guests brought on talking about Obama. For the majority of the time, as I am sure with most stations, MSNBC focused heavily on states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

McCain had the early lead but it appeared as though each state thereafter went to Obama. As more and more electoral votes fell to Obama, MSNBC kept showing more from the Obama standpoint. A lot was done with focusing on the park in Chicago where Obama would give his speech if he managed to maintain his lead, and pull out the victory.

One thing I particularly liked about MSNBC’s coverage is how they were so quick to establish which states went to which candidate. They also had interactive polls throughout their coverage showing how different demographics voted based upon certain characteristics of the candidates. For example, one poll asked if race played a role in their voting decision. Of those that said yes, about one third said they still voted for Barack Obama.

Overall, MSNBC covered the election very professionally, not wavering towards one side in particular. When they saw the election quickly falling to the side of Obama, they focused more on him. They also had coverage of McCain’s speech as well at Obama’s right as they were happening.