Word: brokaw
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...President's returns streamed in, the network commentators sounded a Democratic death-knell. NBC's Tom Brokaw confidently reported that Tuesday's impressive results confirmed a realignment of the political parties...
Although they tried hard, Peter lennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather had more than a little trouble finding other topics to hold viewer interest throughout the evening. And for that, they had themselves to thank. With sophisticated computers and tracking polls, each network was able to predict early on not only Reagan's reelection victory but also its magnitude. Much controversy followed network coverage of the presidential election in 1980, when NBC predicted Reagan's victory at 8:15 p.m. EST, long before Western polls had closed. Members of Congress advocated network self-restraint. But CBS, NBC and ABC rightly...
...self-righteousness began Tuesday morning. In full page newspaper advertisements, NBC touted its team of Brokaw, Roger Mudd and John Chancellor, Boxed in a corner, like some surgeon general warning, appeared the first example of "electoral process respect," or EPR. NBC, the ad promised, would not call any state until the network had received some actual returns. That high-minded avowal forced NBC to wait practically an entire minute. By 8:01 p.m., enough "actual returns" had trickled in to allow NBC to credit Reagan with 166 electoral votes...
...Brokaw couldn't match Rather's Babe Ruth analogy, but not for a lack of effort. "This steamroller, this wave--I'm running out of metaphors!" But to be fair to Brokaw, how else could one describe the evening's outcome? (Those readers who suggested "this victory" are on the right track.) Brokaw also fell into the habit of asking commentator John Chancellor for his "immediate thoughts" on this or that. After NBC projected Reagan the winner, Chancellor offered this immediate thought: "Just that there's a hunger in America for a president who serves eight years." On at least...
...contrast, were tucked away on platforms placed diagonally behind the podium: even when standing, many of them could not see the speakers, the delegates or much of anything else except the glowing network insignia and the distant figures of CBS's Dan Rather, NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Peter Jennings and David Brinkley. Said Editor Robert Maynard of the Oakland Tribune: "This is just another dramatic example that TV has completely taken over center stage in American politics...