'I’m just a reporter, folks'
Please, give us more pollsters and fewer pundits
By Erik Wemple, WashPost, Published: November 2
On MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” on Wednesday, host Chuck Todd was presenting a variety of electoral college outcomes for the Nov. 6 presidential election. With the aid of a clever interactive monitor, Todd was shifting around various battleground states to explain Mitt Romney’s most plausible route to a White House-clinching 270 electoral votes.
In the middle of it all, his voice exasperated, he issued this caveat: “When I’m doing this, I’m not saying this is where NBC says the race is right now. I’m going through scenarios, so don’t overreact on Twitter.”
Compounded by a treatable case of socialmediaphobia, Todd was displaying a bit of old-fashioned caution, ducking behind the curtain of “I’m just a reporter, folks.” How out of touch. Campaign 2012 has seen news outlets go ever more deeply into making news, not merely reporting on it. They don’t just conduct polls, as they have for years. They have embraced the art of computer modeling, generating a constantly revised picture of the national political scene.
More noise than illumination, you might suppose. Perhaps, but only if you ignore all the noise that the media’s long-standing pundit-centric product has churned out for decades.
(More here.)
On MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” on Wednesday, host Chuck Todd was presenting a variety of electoral college outcomes for the Nov. 6 presidential election. With the aid of a clever interactive monitor, Todd was shifting around various battleground states to explain Mitt Romney’s most plausible route to a White House-clinching 270 electoral votes.
In the middle of it all, his voice exasperated, he issued this caveat: “When I’m doing this, I’m not saying this is where NBC says the race is right now. I’m going through scenarios, so don’t overreact on Twitter.”
Compounded by a treatable case of socialmediaphobia, Todd was displaying a bit of old-fashioned caution, ducking behind the curtain of “I’m just a reporter, folks.” How out of touch. Campaign 2012 has seen news outlets go ever more deeply into making news, not merely reporting on it. They don’t just conduct polls, as they have for years. They have embraced the art of computer modeling, generating a constantly revised picture of the national political scene.
More noise than illumination, you might suppose. Perhaps, but only if you ignore all the noise that the media’s long-standing pundit-centric product has churned out for decades.
(More here.)
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