Time to Remove the CNN Drip...

There was a point on Thursday afternoon, after two days of watching election coverage, when I suddenly remembered it was Bommy Night. It didn't matter that I'd forgotten, but it surprised me that we'd got well into the 5th before I realised. Some time after that, it dawned on me that I'd missed the start of lockdown too. 

My hazy grasp of time was my own fault. Mine and America's. I stayed up on the 3rd, powering through on adrenaline and anxiety until midnight on the 4th. Eight hours sleep later and I was back. CNN had me gripped once more. John King - a stateside Peter Snow, with his magic wall of data - was utterly compelling. I don't know if CNN were doing things particularly well, or if my usual choice of political coverage is really bad, but the difference was stark. Clear, calm, and data-led. No contrarian commentators earning a fee with unchallenged nonsense. No distraction or sideshow regardless of the external noise being made. 

Once their coverage started, opinion didn't matter. It was about votes, numbers, and the law. When, around dawn on Wednesday UK time,  T***p said the election was being stolen, the presenters dismissed it immediately. Whilst pointing out the unprecedented nature of a sitting president crying foul, they were quick to explain there was no legal basis for his complaints. When the president made his second speech, around midnight UK time on Thursday, their condemnation of his lies and delusion was unequivocal. And then it was back to the data. Back to the things that mattered. I was grateful for their clarity. 

Having said that, it's only now I've caught up on some sleep and know the happy outcome, that I can fully reflect on the coverage. At the start, I was grappling with the emotional roller coaster I had inadvertently boarded. I'll be honest, drinking a pot of filter coffee on Tuesday evening - my first since 2014 - had mixed results. On the upside, it kept me awake. I was wired and alert, with no worries about dozing off. On the downside, I was wired and alert. My heart pounded and my stomach churned. I only realised it was probably the coffee after half an hour of deep breathing my way through a self-diagnosed anxiety attack. Around 3am Wednesday morning, when the map seemed overwhelmingly red, I had a little cry. I don't think I'll bother with coffee again. 

Calm heads carried me though and kept me going. Not my own head, obviously, but the CNN presenters and journalists. From the start, and at regular intervals, they urged caution. From the generic, 'it's too soon to draw conclusions,' to the more specific, 'mail-in votes will be counted after day-of votes and will likely favour the Democrats which is why we're seeing more red early on.' It was a steady reminder to wait. Wait and see. 

Once I got used to the speed of John King's data, and the repetition of results framed as Key Race Alerts every few minutes, I settled into the rhythm. Not once did I get a flashback of Dimbleby filling. Not once was I reminded of senior UK journalists allowing a load of bollocks be broadcast without refuting it with facts. CNN's coverage became reassuring. Slow and steady, calm and accurate. When, on Saturday afternoon, the race was finally called, Arizona was still being counted, whole days after Fox News had presumptuously called it. It was the political version of the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. Slow and steady ensures the correct results are broadcast at the right time. 

Tomorrow it's a week since the polls closed. I've breathed multiple sighs of relief and I reckon it's time to switch off the rolling news. Why did I care so much? It's a fair question to pose. Why was I unable to look away, managing only a few hours sleep in a four-day period? I've changed planes in Georgia a few times and been to Nevada and Arizona once or twice. Is that what it takes to get me invested in a state count? Or was it that I needed a distraction from lockdown news and EU negotiations? It's true to say I didn't think about coronavirus once during my news fest. Was that why I cared?

My timeline was of one mind.

It was way more than that, of course. For four years, a racist, misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic man, with a slew of sexual assault allegations to his name, has been on the news, on the Internet, and in power. Stomaching lies and inaccuracies spouted by your dodgy boss in a meeting is bad enough. To have that experience enlarged on the world stage has been, at times, unbearable. I was determined to witness him lose the presidency. I needed closure on this particular period of history. And if I feel like that - as a UK citizen - I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must have been to live in the US. My continued viewing was a sort of solidarity, I guess. The journalist, Hadley Freeman, wrote that if Biden lost, she would have to explain to her kids that 'sometimes the bad guys finish first'. It's counter-intuitive to everything we teach children. That's not the only reason Biden should have won, but it showed the simplicity of the situation.

It seems my Been Awake
For Forty Hours face is
 exactly the same as
my Pissed As A Fart
face. Good to know.

But now there's hope. On Friday morning CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo said, 'The days of giving a fair hearing to an unfair statement are over.' He had begun to read out a tweet by T***p but didn't finish. Oh, how I hope that message is heard by UK broadcasters. No more airtime for F****e and his ravings. No more climate change deniers offering 'balance' to scientific fact. How I long to watch a UK election special with data-driven coverage and a clear dismissal of untruths. It can't be too much to ask, can it?  

2020's good news.

For now, I'm in a much better place than I was last week. My jaw is unclenching. The constant knot in my stomach is smaller. It seems that the bad guy hasn't won - subject to legal challenges etc etc, blah, blah blah. And then there's the history-making Vice-President Elect. Kamala Harris - who I've written about before - is the first woman, and first Black, and first South Asian person to hold the office. What an achievement! It was easy to overlook that whilst the counting dragged on. We need more than a moment to recognise it, and celebrate the genuine good news that's managed to sneak past 2020's strict door-policy. 

But hey, let's keep it real. There's still Coronavirus, the lockdown continues to be a necessary pain, and the weirdness of Christmas is still an issue. Let's not lose sight of reality. What are we, optimists? Ha. As if! But just for once, the bad thing didn't happen. 2020 threw us a bone. Stability and sanity might return to global politics. It could even spread over here! Let's not get too carried away though. For now, that's still a dream. And on that note, I'm going to have a bit more sleep. Na'night.

Have a lovely week, folks.