You can stop, as my paternal grandfather used to say in a moment of consternation, hocking mein chinik. If you don’t happen to have some familarity in Yiddish, here’s a link for you to get up to speed. I sent in my ballot yesterday, if for no other reason than to potentially take advantage of the discounts and freebies available if one shows their sticker at a place of business. Who said my vote couldn’t be bought?
While I won’t reveal my choice publicly, I will reassure those of you concerned for my well-being that no, the Republican presidential candidate will somehow have to do without my vote, not that it matters one whit in any statistically meaningful way. Between the electoral college and where I’m registered, at least that race is a fait accompli. Boy, things must be tense, because that’s twice in two paragraphs I’ve diverted from English.
So I will admit there’s at least one comeback I’m dreading seeing, if for no other reason than it triggers haunting memories of students I was trying to teach at Cal State Northridge while the 2016 results were trickling in begin to react in despair to their increasingly frequent phone alerts, eventually turning into wails of panic when the race was called about halfway through our increasingly meaningless discussion about the decline of cable subscribers. Turns out at least eight of my 40-some students were undocumented, and they were convinced that before they got back home federal officials would be rounding up their families and preparing them for deporting in shackles. Once that fear was expressed directly, I tossed that evening’s syllabus in the trash, we moved the desks and did a group hug and held those that were in the greatest need. We didn’t break arms until almost an hour after the class was supposed to end. It was a memorable moment that I was proud of the end result but it’s not one I would look forward to reliving.
This year, I’ll be home, and fortunately for the likes of folks like moi who want information but are sick of bias, there’s a new alternative for coverage, and it just so happens it will be hosted by a familiar face that I once loved to see nightly. As DEADLINE’s Ted Johnson reported last week:
Turn on Amazon’s Prime Video on Election Night, and you will see the streaming giant do something it has never done before: Live coverage of a breaking news event.
Brian Williams, the former NBC News and MSNBC anchor who will host Election Night Live, has compared the special as the first “new product introduction in the election night space since color television.” In an interview with Deadline, Williams wouldn’t go into specifics, but promised a reveal of “our own exclusive IP.” A set built on a Culver City soundstage will be “all LED,” and he will be mobile “between different areas of the studio where analysts and journalists and a historian or two and our data folks are working.”nchor who will host Election Night Live, has compared the special as the first “new product introduction in the election night space since color television.”
Yes, Williams is a veteran of a network that is clearly left-leaning, but he will be counterbalanced by some other familiar faces that used to hold court in prime time on cable news channels, such as this array which FORBES’ Mark Joyella told his readers about last week:
Former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith will join longtime NBC and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams on Amazon’s live streaming coverage as results of the 2024 presidential election come in..Billed as an Amazon Prime Video exclusive, the election coverage will feature Smith, reporting from Vice President Kamala Harris’ election headquarters. He’s been absent from TV screens since he exited CNBC in 2022.
Amazon will get its election returns data from the AP and Reuters, and feature commentary from political consultants James Carville and Mike Murphy, along with writer-comedian Baratunde Thurston.
Williams has reunited with former CNN and MSNBC executive producer Jonathan Wald, with the team working to build “a temporary, one-night news division over the past 60 days.
A lot of experienced, familiar faces, and, best of all, no heavy-handed lecturing, praying or admonishment from either side of the aisle seems to be on the agenda.
And even if there is, they’ll be ample opportunity for equal time, as Williams explained to Johnson:
He said that he has asked Amazon to take no breaks during the special, but “I don’t know if I’ll win that tug of war.”
“I think we go a minimum of 10 hours, and I think it will grow north from there,” Williams said. “We don’t want to miss a moment. We don’t want to miss a vote. We certainly don’t want to miss a projection, and along the way, we’re hoping to offer fantastic context from veterans in the field.”
Williams said that Prime Video is building out its facility from scratch. “They realized they had to take a big bite and write a big check,” he said.
“Given [Amazon’s] potential customer base, given their deep pockets and their willingness to underwrite a live election night broadcast, I think we’re in for what certainly feels to me like it might be the next big thing,” he said. “And I say that, as I have said before, no one was more bullish on over-the-air broadcasting than I was. No one was more bullish on the reach and power and influence of cable news than I was. So after 41 years in some form of over-the-air television, I’m going to try to walk on the wild side.”
Whether this proves to be a one-off that is effectively testing the waters for Amazon-produced live content (they currently use NBC personnel to produce Thursday Night Football) will ultimately be determined by the reaction, both in audience size and among news pundits. Do remember that the guy who is ultimately footing the bill already has his hands full with how folks are reacting to how another one of his properties is covering this, so suffice to say he’s on a short lease. And depending upon the results of what goes down, that also might determine the future of Amazon staying in one of the few areas of content besides sports that is proven to produce loyalty and stickiness.