Ain't over 'til it's over
03/05/08 05:50 AM
By ED BARK
Viewers/voters still aren't over "The Hill."
Defying strikes, budget constraints and doom-saying pundits, TV's longest-running and costliest miniseries has been renewed for at least another seven weeks after Hillary Clinton again braked Barack Obama's momentum.
Networks waited until 11:47 p.m. Tuesday to put Texas in her win column, with MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN almost simultaneously making the night's last projections.
All of D-FW's players, save for WFAA8, had put their election coverage to bed by that time. But the ABC station, which earlier had a problem-plagued 9 p.m. special, signed off at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday without noting any of cable's calls.
TXA21, sister station of CBS11, had the broadcast coverage to itself from 7 to 9 p.m. Its all-out effort proved competent, although at times emblematic of what viewers don't like about media coverage of politics.
Shortly before 8 p.m., CBS11's generally solid Jack Fink (billed as the "only North Texas reporter" at Clinton's Ohio election night gathering), made a semi-fool of himself after buttonholing her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe.
"You're trailing 56 to 43 in Texas so far with one percent of the vote. What happened?" Fink asked him.
McAuliffe may be a spinmeister of the first order. But he was right in incredulously reacting to Fink while telling him that 99 percent of the vote remained at large.
"We're gonna win Texas," he told Fink, who also asked if Clinton might be dropping out. "It's a moot point," McAuliffe replied.
WFAA8's one-hour election special and Fox4's regularly scheduled newscast picked up the batons at 9 p.m. It was just in time to catch the last two minutes of John McCain's victorious nomination speech at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas. That's where the campaign color and action was, but only Fox4 immediately hit this sweet spot. A slow-on-the-draw WFAA8 initially ignored McCain and primed viewers for coming attractions before tardily catching the last 15 seconds or so of his speech. Not a good start or a good call on the part of a station that almost always has its act together on election nights.
WFAA8 eventually returned live to the Fairmont well after McCain finished his speech at 9:02 p.m. Reporter Macie Jepson needlessly ticked off highlights before going to videotape of the Republican nominee's address to supporters. But that crapped out after about five seconds, leaving a mute Jepson dangling for what seemed to be an eternity before anchors John McCaa and Gloria Campos briefly restored order.
Campos soon was complaining, however, about teeny vote results that were "really difficult for me to read." Then the numbers disappeared all together, again forcing the station to reboot. WFAA8 later inadvertently put up local election graphics while Campos talked about presidential primary results in Ohio.
Jepson eventually got a second chance at McCain headquarters, but badly stammered her way through a closing standup. It wasn't her night -- or the station's. But much is expected of D-FW's news leader, which generally excels in both the ratings and quality of coverage.
WFAA8 also had "our Angela Kocherga" with Clinton in Ohio. It's true that Belo, which owns the station and many others, pays her salary and also toted her trip to Columbus. But Kocherga otherwise isn't a WFAA staffer, so CBS11/TXA21's claims of exclusivity weren't entirely off-base. Most viewers probably could care less anyway.
A final problem cropped up after WFAA8 yielded to Nightline from 10:35 to 11:05 p.m. Obama began his speech from San Antonio shortly after Nightline started, but the program carried just a brief live excerpt before bailing out.
Fox4, CBS11 and NBC5 all stayed with Obama, with the latter station dumping NBC's ongoing Tonight Show to give its viewers a big drink of it. But WFAA8 remained with Nightline, ceding the Obama speech to its rivals.
ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson and This Week moderator George Stephanopoulos worked in concert with WFAA8 during their two-day stay in Dallas. But the duo's contributions were minor on Tuesday night -- they obviously had network responsibilities, too -- until the station returned after Nightline with an added hour of glitch-free, late night coverage.
Campos and McCaa, in the warmth of the Victory Park studios, talked at length to the ABC heavyweights, both stationed outdoors in topcoats. It was an interesting conversation, with Gibson at one point taking very pointed issue with the accuracy of exit poll data provided to networks.
"If I may be so bold this late in the evening, it really stank," Gibson said.
McCaa closed shop with his own sharp comment on problems with caucus voting and over-crowding. Many prospective participants reportedly gave up and went home.
What turned out to be a left-footed "Texas two-step" either needs to be drastically remodeled or abandoned all together, McCaa said. "Once you invite a bunch of people to the party, they expect to dance."
Meanwhile, Clinton and Obama have moved on -- and definitely won't be waltzing toward Pennsylvania's April 22nd primary. Gibson's pumped.
"From a selfish standpoint, I don't want it to end," he told unclebarky.com in an interview earlier Tuesday. "I love this thing going on, and I think it's good for the democracy. The longer you can keep people engaged, the better."