Coverage Comparison

FOX 

For election night, I was at the Marriott for the GOP Watch Party. There, they were playing FOX news on two giant screens at opposite ends of the room for participants to keep up with the score.

By 10:00 p.m., Obama was at 244 electoral votes while Romney was trailing with 203.

Fox correspondents Bret Baer, Brit Hume and Megyn Kelly were covering the action at Fox studios.

“Obama is more likely to try and work with republicans, now that he is a lame duck,” said Kelly.

Bret Baer subjectively said, “Obama had to appease democrats, his base, by not working with republicans.” However, it is a lack of bipartisan governing from both sides that has seen a gridlock in government productivity.

A democratic guest (unnamed during my viewing) claimed the gridlock came from republicans, who outnumbered the democratic voice in the House of Representatives 233-195.

Brit Hume said, “Raising taxes on the rich doesn’t achieve nearly enough money” to impact the deficit, but didn’t comment on what it does do.

It seems like Fox is looking for a single jubilee that can fix the economy, rather than blending ideas and micromanaging.

Hume said the Obama administration has tried to paint Romney as a vulture capitalist, citing Obama’s $100 million negative ad campaign.

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, Fox’s most notoriously frequent guest, said it was an unusual election and that Romney did great for a northeastern liberal. He said this year has seen a “very weak field of candidates”, but was very optimistic about the next generation of candidates, like Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio.

“The future of the party is bright,” Krauthammer said.

CNN

When I turned on CNN, Wolf Blitzer was saying Obama was projected to win Iowa. There were roars of applause from Obama fans as the race drew to a close.

Jessica Yellin, Chief White House Correspondent, said this election was “a lesson the Republican party will learn from.”

By this time, Obama had received 43.8 million (49%) of the popular vote, with Romney slightly ahead at 44.0 million votes (49%). Romney would go on to win the popular vote, with Obama collecting the required 270 electoral votes.

“I think it is a myth out there that [Obama] does not want to cooperate,” said Van Jones, a CNN contributor. “I think he did want to. I think he had a hard time finding a partner because of the Tea Party caucus.”

By 11:30 p.m., several news stations had projected Obama as the overall winner.

Jim Acosta, CNN national political correspondent reported the Romney campaign was not ready to concede the election.

As of 11:46 p.m., CNN reported Romney was not ready to concede.

The reason was the Romney campaign had disputed the Ohio call, which went against some of Fox’s officials’ reports.

MSNBC 

Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, called the election shortly after 11:00 p.m.

Al Sharpton hilariously called Obama’s campaign “flawless,” saying Obama “brought us back from the ugliness politics have become.”

Then again, hindsight is 20-20.

It seems that, upon hearing the projection, Sharpton had forgotten all the vitriolic, antagonistic, mud-slinging tactics presented from both sides throughout the race. He also didn’t seem to realize that Romney won the popular vote, which is far from a “flawless” victory.

Correspondents said it was a much harder race than in 2008 for both sides.

They agreed Romney’s 47% remark was fatal, and reported the mood at the Romney campaign was “deflated.”

“[Republicans] will continue to lose, and marginalize themselves,” Sharpton added.

Rachel Maddow quickly jumped on the fact that FOX was refusing to believe some of their own officials.

Maddow said, if Romney won, Obama’s policies “would have been dialed back along with the rest of his legacy.”