Extra! A look at election-coverage highs and lows
A sampling of media wins and flops, following Tuesday's "bloody nose" for Trump
Readers, in this quick-hit “extra,” I’m gathering some of the press coverage I found notable, with gift links where needed.
I loved this smart deadline piece by David Smith, who works in Washington for the Guardian US, with the headline: “Democrats have racked up election wins across America but they would do well not to misread the results.” Smith’s first line: “America gave Donald Trump a bloody nose,” but he quickly notes that that punch is very far from a knockout. The Democratic party’s brand “is still under water,” he writes, and it would be foolish to over-interpret the results. Nevertheless, Tuesday was “the night they got back in business.”
Because I live in New York City, I was fascinated by the block-by-block report of the mayoral results in the New York Times. The paper’s visual and data chops were on display. Gift link here. The nonprofit news site The City also did a good job with election coverage, including Katie Honan’s “15 Minutes with the Next Mayor of New York,” in which the reporter rode the subway with Zohran Mamdani on the eve of election day. Another nonprofit news organization, the excellent CalMatters, provided strong coverage of the passage of Proposition 50 in California — a big win for Democrats and for Gov. Gavin Newsom in his battle against Trump. The effort was a risk for Newsom, the report notes, and it paid off.
Quite a bit less praiseworthy was the absurd New York Post front page on Wednesday morning: The Red Apple, the tabloid shouted. The cover featured an illustration of Mamdani, in scarlet, wielding a hammer and sickle, along with a silly sub-headline: “On your Marx, get set, Zo!” Mamdani is not a communist, despite Trump World’s relentless efforts to depict him as one. In fact, this Times piece — “How Zohran Mamdani Beat Back New York’s Elite and Was Elected Mayor” (gift link here) — lays out how the young democratic socialist managed to calm at least some elements of the city’s powerful business sector, as well as apologize to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who eventually endorsed him. Nicholas Fandos reports that Mamdani’s meeting with billionaire Mike Bloomberg didn’t win over the former mayor but may have delayed his intense, last-ditch opposition.
Along with the embarrassment at the Murdoch-owned Post, I could have done without Chris Cuomo, on NewsNation, telling us how sad he is that his brother, former governor Andrew Cuomo, lost the mayoral election. I’ve had more than enough of the Brothers Cuomo.
I liked a Washington Post look-ahead to how the Democrats are going to define their identity given the mixed signals of centrist wins by Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively, as opposed to the much more progressive Mamdani. The accompanying montage photo of the three of them might be the image of the day. See it in this gift link to the story by Naftali Bendavid and Yasmeen Abutaleb.
Separately (not election-related), I was sad to see that McClatchy, the newspaper chain, has shuttered its storied Washington bureau. Back when the chain was called Knight-Ridder, that Washington bureau provided rare, skeptical coverage in the run-up to the Iraq War. That was an admirable contrast to the credulous stories elsewhere — particularly in the New York Times, led by Judith Miller. All praise to those Knight-Ridder journalists, particularly Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay, Joe Galloway and bureau chief John Walcott. You did your jobs well. In other disheartening media news, Teen Vogue, which has distinguished itself with strong politics coverage and commentary, will be folded into Vogue and its voice will be much weakened.
Oliver Darcy reported in Status that Trump’s appearance on 60 Minutes this past Sunday drew a huge audience averaging 14 million viewers, the largest the show has had since 2021. Trump may have that bloody nose but he still has ratings, which he probably cares about more than anything.
Finally, I was struck by this Election Day prediction, a Bluesky post from the intrepid former NBC News reporter Ben Collins, who left the network to relaunch The Onion, where he is the CEO. He wrote: “I think a thing we’ll learn tonight is that people fucking hate what is going on and they will straight-ticket vote against anyone involved in starving people while pillaging the country and kidnapping their neighbors. I don’t think it matters at all who that person is.” That’s something Collins couldn’t have written while employed in mainstream media, which undoubtedly is part of why he’s doing something very different now.
Readers, I’d love to hear how you’re reacting to the election results, what your news diet was, and how you would evaluate where we stand now. Thanks for being here, and for your instructive comments on my piece this week about the troubling changes at CBS News and why Trump finds them so wonderful.
I hope you’ll subscribe and come along for what’s bound to be a bumpy ride to the midterm elections, now just one year away. The press needs to do its job, and do it well. We’ll be watching!
My background: I am a Lackawanna, NY native who started my career as a summer intern at the Buffalo News, my hometown daily. After years as a reporter and editor, I was named the paper’s first woman editor in chief in 1999, and ran the 200-person newsroom for almost 13 years. Starting in 2012, I served as the first woman “public editor” of the New York Times — an internal media critic and reader representative — and later was the media columnist for the Washington Post. These days, I write here on Substack, as well as for the Guardian US, and teach an ethics course at Columbia Journalism School. I’ve also written two books and won a few awards, including three for defending First Amendment principles.
The purpose of ‘American Crisis’: My aim is to use this newsletter (it started as a podcast in 2023) to push for the kind of journalism we need for our democracy to function — journalism that is accurate, fair, mission-driven and public-spirited. That means that I point out the media’s flaws and failures when necessary.
What I ask of you: Last fall, I removed the paywall so that everyone could read and comment. I thought it was important in this dire moment and might be helpful. If you are able to subscribe at $50 a year or $8 a month, or upgrade your unpaid subscription, that will help to support this venture — and keep it going for all. Thank you!
Thanks for presenting these analyses (good work) as newsletters rather than podcasts. I do not care to hear people talk. I like my disaster news quiet, and on my time.
A valuable look at the coverage. One point of disagreement--or at least difference in interpretation--though. On WaPo's piece re D identity, I found G. Elliott Morris's analysis (which I found via Brad DeLong) very helpful. (https://www.gelliottmorris.com/i/178051880/democrats-affordability-message-worked-regardless-of-nominee-ideology) At that link Morris argues that while Spanberger, Sherrill and Mamdani all ran from different ideological starting points, they had in common a clear and intense focus on affordability, with a shared diagnosis and responses/solutions shaped by their different electorates. Add the freedom theme (people really don't like the idea of masked thugs grabbing people out of homes and cars) and you have a shared starting point from which to build a range of D candidacies in different settings. The D brand may be down (Morris thinks so) but a D identity built around those pillars is not just a possibility; the results from yesterday show us that it's already taking shape.