Withdrawal Symptoms on Election Day
It’s Election Day and I’m going through a little withdrawal today.
That’s because in my “past life”, I often oversaw election coverage at the TV stations where I worked.
It was a massive undertaking, no matter what the election, and required all kinds of coordination, from booking satellite time (that’s how we were able to get video uplinks from far-away places, like DC, back to our station in Norfolk, or Knoxville, or Panama City Beach), to setting up volunteers to call in results from the various election headquarters to input into our computer systems to feed to “the booth” where the producer would send them to “chyron” to run across the bottom of your TV screen. It required a lot of juggling in order to execute well.
And, to be perfectly honest, it was when I shined.
I’m not trying to brag.
This just happened to be the night when it seemed all my passions aligned in the news universe.
I LOVED election night and the thrill of the late-breaking updates and the last second numbers and the stories that surrounded election day.
I loved getting the information on my channel first—and always accurate—and knowing the viewers watching our station were getting the best, most comprehensive coverage.
Yes, I still write news stories and put great information on the air. But I’m not in the thick of it when big stories are happening, on days like this.
And I miss it.
Not enough to go back into a newsroom full time.
Just enough to appreciate how difficult it is to pull off “clean” coverage today, and to wish I was there tonight.
November 6, 2012 @ 4:07 pm
I think I would love the thrill of just being in the atmosphere sounds exciting but nerve racking at the same time lol
November 8, 2012 @ 8:35 am
It has been a blessing for us to have a large family. We grew from newlyweds to having 9 children in 11 years. Goodbye to spectator sports (unless it’s Mom and Dad on the sidelines of the soccer games), mindless TV, and the opportunity to get too wrapped up in following election coverage. That seems to have been a second blessing.
Regardless of the importance of the election or which side you supported, for most of us, once you cast your vote there is not much left except an almost voyeuristic fascination with following the high drama on the news media.
We tuned in for about an hour after we put the little ones down, but I did not have the stamina I had in 2000 to stay up all night for the final results. Honestly, after the vote I felt like an outsider watching others scurry around and fuss over numbers and predictions. I wonder if we as Americans are or will be eventually jaded from all the hype and spin.
Elections are important, but it seems that the coverage has gotten so over the top it has become trite and boring. I hope it does not distract voters from the real issues.