TV critic Jonathan Storm reports:
The wide margin made it a clean job for national coverage by the cable channels, which treated us to strong, unedited speeches from both candidates that soaked up time from speculation and blather.
Then it was time for (look out) the local news to take over.
"The groups [the Obama campaign] have to work on for the summer and fall are Catholics, women, elderly and those all-important all important white, blue-collar males," said 6ABC's Monica Malpass. Just this side of fiction, the statement completely ignored the reality that the only groups Obama really has to work to lock up the nomination are small claques of super-delegates. Viewer e-mail got a segment, too: a cheap and uninformative diversion in a limited-time newscast.
CBS3 gave lots of time to Clinton, and Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter, and then went far away with correspondent Jim Osman stationed in Evansville, Ind., to let Obama say a thing or two, too. That's admirable news coverage. The station's Chris May gave trenchant analysis of how Clinton won, including a strong margin among gun owners, "who, remarkably, made up 40 percent of the electorate."
Oh, and by the way: *The Flyers won in overtime!!!!!*
I noticed that Catherine Lucey could barely hide her disappointment on Fox News that Obama had lost and to top it off almost slipped disclosed that her sister had voted for Obama. Wait 'til the Republicans are on the other side, then there will really be no holding back.— Norm- Reminds me of Katie Couric and Anne Curry's disdain when Al Gore lost. Stopped watching the Today show back then. Welcome to my everyday media world.— sydney77
The Inauguration: Jan. 20 blog brings you coverage of President-elect Barack Obama's transition into office.
It's written by political journalists from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Send us your comments -- and news tips -- at this address.
Thomas Fitzgerald joined The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2000, and has covered Harrisburg as well as city, state and national politics for the newspaper. He was a “boy on the bus” in the 2004 presidential campaign and during primary contests in 2000 and 1996.
Nathan Gorenstein has covered politics and government in the city, state and nation for the Inquirer. He's worked in the city hall bureau, had a stint on the business desk, and once covered the suburbs. After serving as assistant regional editor, he was named editor of the "Politics" web site.
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