Borderline's election analysis: TV news sucks

Sorry the lack of updates. Like a lot of people these days, Borderline has to take work-related overseas trips every now and then.

But I did make it back in time for the elections. I was surprised by the wine vote, but hey, Massachusetts has been a haven for bizarre alcohol-related rules since the 1600s. Why stop now?

I won't comment on the local or national races -- other local blogs are better on that front (Check out local reax from H2OTown, The Newton Tab Blog, and The Garden City Blog).

But I will make one observation regarding televised media coverage: What the heck happened to objectivity? Elections are serious business, and personal feelings of reporters are supposed to stay off camera. Right? But half of the local TV people couldn't stop smiling. Even on channel 44, MacNeil or Lehrer or whatever his name had this huge grin on his face at one point, for the first time since, like, 1978.

The local Fox 25 political coverage was odd. Their chief political reporter, Battenfeld, sounded like he was going through puberty -- his voice was really cracking. At least Bob Ward managed to look serious, even though he was at party central -- aka Deval Patrick HQ.

Eventually, once it became clear who was coming out on top, I decided to wait until the morning for real political analysis in the Globe and NYT, which goes way beyond the 100-word sound bytes that pass for talking-heads analysis on TV.

I then switched to South Park on 38. Good episode, too -- Cartman as a robot!