• The New York Times
“Sets were as colorful and cluttered as Web sites, a sign of insecurity perhaps for networks worried about bloggers eclipsing their relevance.”
• Cleveland Plain Dealer
“ABC swept to victory by wisely relying on the tested triumvirate of anchor Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and Orange High School graduate George Stephanopoulos.”
• NY Daily News
“Cable and network news kept things lively for more than two hours by pumping the notion of a close race, which is the way to keep viewers watching.”
• Miami Herald
“As CBS cameras showed the crowd amassing for Obama’s victory speech in Chicago, Bob Scheiffer — practically the only person on the air Tuesday night to remember it — noted the historical irony of the site: Grant Park, where antiwar riots 40 years ago shattered the bonds of a Democratic Party coalition that had won seven of the previous nine presidential elections.
• Boston Herald
“The presidential race drew unprecedented media coverage that ended last night with an all-out orgy of bloviating TV punditry – capping an election season that brought out the best, but mostly the worst, in broadcast journalism.”
• Boston Globe
“For all the feverish analysis the TV networks have spun in the past hours, days, and weeks, something changed the moment an Obama victory became clear. Across the dial, the rhetoric shifted from politics to history.”
• Houston Chronicle
“Each of the major networks called the election for Obama as the polls closed on the West Coast at 10 p.m. CNN and MSNBC commemorated the moment with whip-around video coverage of celebrating supporters in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere, then turned to analysis, sometimes of an emotional nature, from their studio contributors.”
• Hartford Courant
“Holograms walked the studio. Reporters roamed virtual answer chambers. Maps flashed and revolved and zoomed in and were painted on ice with what looked like exterminator’s gear.”