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Squaring off on screen
It’s the matchup observers anticipated for weeks: Not who controls Congress, but who America trusts when the election hits the fan. Here’s how the networks’ news faces handled their biggest collective story yet.
By ERIC DEGGANS
Published November 8, 2006
| Comparing the anchors | | Topic | Brian Williams | Katie Couric | Charlie Gibson | | Best moment | Two things: Williams' sleek set – a grand space near the Rockefeller Center waterfall – and his first two guests, top Republican Sen. John McCain and buzzed-about Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Star power personified. | Joining Couric to cover his 22nd election, former interim anchor Bob Schieffer kept things lively with cheeky comments and a down-to-earth charm Dan Rather could only dream about. Why did they ever pass over this guy in the first place? | His decision to kick Ted Danson's latest sitcom to the curb and start ABC's coverage 30 minutes before everyone else. While Katie and Brian were playing catchup with cable, Gibson was already hip-deep in analysis. | | Worst moment | Co-anchor Tim Russert's white dry-erase board; whipped out minutes into the broadcast. An inspired touch during the 2000 election mess, it's a Luddite crutch six years later. | The nights' biggest cliche: "It's said all politics are local, but not in this election tonight." Surely we could avoid repeating such an obvious line twice during the same broadcast? | He couldn't resist an awful joke about candidate Sheldon Whitehouse's win in Rhode Island: "I'm amused that we'll have a Whitehouse in the Senate." Charlie, you're the only one. | | 'Big brother ' moment | Flanked by Meet the Press host Russert and former anchor Tom Brokaw, Williams looked like the prodigal son propped up by his older brother and doting dad. | Schieffer's way-cool lines, including this one about a losing congressman who throttled his girlfriend: "I always thought hypocrisy was the number one political crime...but I'm beginning to think choking your mistress (tops it)." | A former correspondent who covered the House of Representatives and the White House for ABC, Gibson was the old hand here – propping up This Week host George Stephanopoulos with his wonky enthusiasm. | | Performance | Typically self-assured and smooth, Williams is the James Bond of news anchors, seamlessly shifting from a gentle grilling of McCain to balancing the egos of Russert and Brokaw on live TV. | A little scattered, but earnest and eager to tackle issues. Given that so few races were resolved during the networks' hour of coverage, the broadcast was mostly enlightened speculation and foregone conclusions. | Clearly jazzed about his first election in the big chair, Gibson kept spouting geeky trivia like the fact that the dads of Whitehouse and his opponent Lincoln Chaffee were college roomates. Relevant? Not so much. | | Critic's grade | A: Substantive, informative and a little bit cool – just the way to make a midterm election fun. | B+ : Delivered all the info we needed, but with a little less flash than expected. | A- : Traditional, thorough and prepared, he was all we needed in an old school package. |
For more election TV commentary, see Eric Deggans' blog at blogs.tampabay.com/media. |
[Last modified November 8, 2006, 15:04:29]
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