CNN - THE FORCE IS WITH TV NEWS CHANNELS

THE FORCE IS WITH TV NEWS CHANNELS

CNN at times had the look of a special-effects movie during its election coverage Tuesday night, expecially when its in-studio team discussed the results with correspondent Jessica Yellin in the field, who appeared on the set as a 3-D hologram. It sometimes appeared as if the coverage were part of a Star Wars movie, what with the hologram image colored with a blue caste and outlined with a white halo. Indeed at one point, Yellin remarked, "I feel like Princess Leia." Newsweek's online site commented that "it was a cheesy, gratuitous technique." CNN also had a chance to feature its "Magic Map," a touch-screen map displaying the electoral vote composition that outshone similar screens employed by rival news channels. All in all, the television and cable networks handled their election coverage without the embarrassing glitches that have plagued them in previous elections. On Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert parodied the election coverage (when Stewart would remark that it was "a historic night," Colbert would incorrectly correct him, saying that it was "An historic night") during a one-hour special. The broadcast, which was scheduled to end at 11 00 p.m., stayed on the air for a moment past that witching hour so that Stewart could announce in all seriousness, "I would just like to say, if I may ... that at 11 o'clock at night, Eastern Standard Time, the president of the United States is Barack Obama." (That event actually will occur on January 20.)

05/11/2008