CNN wins Super Tuesday

I was pretty much glued to my TV from 5:30pm (PST) until around 10:00pm when it was pretty obvious that the Democratic delegates were split and that McCain had won California. Obama's ability to keep pace with Hillary and Huckabee's capture of multiple states were certainly the political highlights of the evening, but the real winner was CNN.

To be fair, I have to say that I've watched less and less CNN over the past several years, and a few years ago when Crossfire and The Capital Gang were taken off the air, I pretty much only tuned in in hotels that didn't have Fox News (not too many of those, thankfully). The political leanings aside, Fox has always had the shinier, better presentation, with more engaging personalities and guests, while CNN was SO boring. And dull. Aside from getting an occasional reality check due to the political leaning of Fox, CNN had little or no value anymore.

But then, this fall, CNN HD was added to my DirecTV lineup. I didn't really care that much, but boy those presidential debates looked awesome compared to the grainy Fox and MSNBC debate coverage. That visual impact (if you've got a 1080p HDTV) is pretty substantial. Nonetheless, the content didn't seem much better, but the presentation sure did.

When it came time to decide what to DVR on Tuesday, I chose CNN HD and ABC (sorry, Katie, it's just not working out between you and me). NBC wasn't an option (the "biggest loser" was on instead) unless I went with MSNBC, which leans SO far to the left it makes CNN seem conservative, even with Tim Russert on board to keep things a little more moderate. I did flip around a little to Fox and the recording on ABC, but I was absolutely GLUED to CNN HD coverage. They've outfoxed Fox when it comes to quality in presentation.

Wolf Blitzer, whose distaste for President Bush tends to ooze out like a thick, creamy liberal syrup, was very neutral as he stood in front of a giant 25 foot wide screen that showed the candidates and contested states. And it just wasn't a big screen, there were a lot of pixels flying around with a great deal of detail. Excellent screen quality, just the right amount of information, and a snazzy sharp design. Kudos to the graphics architect for CNN's political coverage.

Next to the big screen was a smaller array of four screens mounted at various heights and depths (from the camera). Soledad O'Brien (CNN's very capable hottie anchor/reporter) and William Schneider (who now that I watched him again, I do really miss) talked about exit polls in these screens, and they covered a different topic on each screen and then started over again. Good stuff, and a nice break from Wolf's big gigantovision screen.

But the best was to their right: John King and the Amazing Interactive Detail Board. This huge (80"?) TV had a fully interactive touch screen that John was obviously still learning to use. It enabled him to zoom in and out from the whole country down to county-level, and for each area the relevant stats were shown on the right (he could switch between GOP and Dems with just a touch on bars at the upper left). It was fun and informative and great eye candy.

The two desks for contributors were a little awkward, with two tiers with rotating guests, but the handheld camera movement gave the set a feeling of a whole lot going on, and there never seemed like there would be enough time to see or hear everyone.

On the downside, Larry King looked fuzzy (SD, not 'cause he hadn't shaved), and it was an odd transititon from Wolf to him (I thought at first Larry was going to be a guest, and then suddenly he's talking to the contributing talking heads).

Regardless, the CNN coverage rocked. Now if they can make their primetime programming more interesting, I'd love to have a real choice....

FOX News HD better hurry up or they're going to be left in the dust.


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