Trump Wins, the Media Loses. Again.

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You can read about the politics elsewhere, and I’ll doubtlessly discuss it with my co-host Emma Burnell on this week’s House of Comments podcast episode. Here, though, I want to look at the media coverage and reaction to Donald Trump’s victory yesterday. One thing to note, is how fractured the coverage was.

Firstly, there was a new kid in town last night. Prime Video brought in Brian Williams to anchor its coverage in an absolutely enormous studio. I liked that some of the Puck correspondents were involved in it. The most fascinating thing to me, though, was when I opened the Prime Video app, there it was – live news coverage next to live coverage of the Champion’s League match the service was also showing.

This is a bit of an outlier situation because a) the US Presidential election only happens every four years, and b) Prime Video only has Champions League games on a Tuesday, which just so happens to be when US elections are held. However, the combination of live sports and live news made it seem rather like a traditional cable. Once they have debriefed from last night, it will be interesting to see how much further Prime Video goes into these kinds of live news events and how that transforms the service.

Startups like The Free Press also live streamed for hours. You really could pick whatever version of election night you wanted. (Threads was still hours behind, though.)

Media Meltdown After Trump Win

As for the rest, the general consensus is that on both sides of the Atlantic, media types are in a bit of a meltdown. They are trying, and generally failing, to comprehend how Trump has won. Again. Podcaster and former MP Rory Stewart is getting plenty of stick for his prediction that Kamala Harris “will win comfortably” and has had to face up to it

US TV is full of panels trying to dissect demographic data and come up with theories. You’d think that between Brexit, Trump (first edition), Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, never mind elections in parts of Europe and elsewhere, we’d have all got a bit better at understanding the different flavours of populism and why people support it. Last night shows there is still a long way to go.

This is not just about the death of local news (although that doesn’t help) or the fact networks didn’t send enough reporters to diners in flyover country to do vox pops. The fact we were constantly told the race was close reveals a total misreading of the national political mood. (For what it’s worth, I thought and have written it was going to be very close too.)

Given what might happen in the next four years, the media needs to sharpen up and step up. Fast.