Rule #1 when hosting election night coverage, source your own news organization when calling a race. John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, hosting their first election night for BloombergTV, were discussing the West Virginia Senate race when Halperin said, “Two news organizations, both CNN and Fox News, are predicting that Shelley Moore Capito will be the winner.”
A short time later, Halperin added, “Mark it down, Bloomberg Politics is reporting the apparent winner in West Virginia is Shelley Moore Capito.”
A few minutes after that, Bloomberg cited CNN once again, which had called the Ohio Governors race for John Kasich. Isn’t Bloomberg also a news organization capable of calling elections?
A BloombergTV spokesperson tells TVNewser it’s all part of the strategy of their coverage: “Bloomberg Politics is reporting apparent winners of races based on returns, reporting with party committees, campaigns and election officials, detailed analysis of historical voting patterns and demographic data, as well as projections from other outlets.”