Cable News Stokes Political Fever

By DAVID CARR
NYT

MSNBC ran a countdown clock in preparation for the big event last Tuesday night. CNN’s run-up thrummed with portent, while a skeptical Fox News joined in the fervent speculation.

So what had the cable news stations in overdrive? A fairly routine, some might say boring, presidential news conference that did not make news.

That didn’t stop squad after squad of panelists from weighing in on CNN — tearing apart President Obama’s mien and message down to the last blink and nod. A huge electronic display showed a “word cloud” — words in a size that indicated their frequency of use. (Gee, I liked it better when John King used a digital maps to annotate and caress delegate totals.) And before it even started taking apart the content, Fox pointed out that the president had used — gasp — a teleprompter.

There is no question that the stakes are high in this presidency, and it’s hardly an epiphany that in order to feed the 24/7 beast, cable news has to turn every little thing into a big event. But something else is at work here. Gorged on ratings from a historic election and still riding on leftover adrenaline, the cable networks have steadfastly remained in campaign mode. And the hyperbolic rhythms and requirements of a cable news world have never seemed less relevant to the story at hand.

(More here.)