Midterms: CNN’s Always-On Ticker; Gibson’s Tidy Set; Olbermann’s Jokes

“TV’s election coverage Tuesday was marked by complexity and care,” the AP’s Frazier Moore says. “After past botched calls on winning candidates, the networks approached gingerly even early exit polls on basic issues.” Also:

> “Even during commercial breaks, CNN’s viewers were kept informed: The text displays at the bottom of the screen continued, uninterrupted. Even for trigger-happy viewers, it provided an incentive to stay put.”

> ABC’s Charles Gibson was “ensconced in a tidy, white election center that resembled the headquarters of a dot-com.”

> “Early in the evening MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann touched on breaking news of a pop star’s divorce plans when he quipped that an overwhelming Democratic victory might signal ‘some sort of shift to get out of the (Iraq) war faster than Britney Spears got out of her marriage.'”