Copyright Cable News Network
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free here. From time to time, news outlet leaders should look around and ask: Do our stories reflect the current state of political discourse? Do our segments represent the voices of all voters? I found myself thinking about this on Tuesday evening as Zohran Mamdani talked about “the working people of New York,” whom he credited with his victory. “Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns: These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power,” he said. “And yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.” I love a good TV panel discussion. But it’s worth asking if the typical one actually includes, or even channels the views of, people like the ones Mamdani described. As David Axelrod acknowledged during one of CNN’s panels late last night, “Everyone at this table is going to go home to great comfort.” But “there are a lot of people in this city, there are a lot of people in this country, who have to worry every single day about how they’re going to meet their bills. And that is a crisis.” That disconnect — between who we invite to talk about politics and who is actually shaping it on the ground — is a gap that journalists, especially on TV, constantly have to work hard to close. Thus, my favorite day-after story is by CNN’s Aditi Sangal, who spent the evening at Kabab King, the mayor-elect’s go-to biryani spot in Jackson Heights. Check out what she heard here. Progressive columnists celebrate In the same way that media outlets sought out Trump-supporting talking heads in 2015 and 2016, it’s crucial to seek out commentators who speak for a new, younger generation of Democratic voters. For example, The Free Press election night live stream last night hosted Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation magazine and founding editor of the socialist magazine Jacobin. “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Eric Blanc wrote in an essay that led Jacobin’s website last night and this morning. Blanc conveyed the improbability of Mamdani’s victory, then warned, “turning Zohran’s vision into a reality won’t be easy. Some of the most powerful people and institutions in the world are going to do everything to stop us. But transforming our city is possible, if large numbers of everyday New Yorkers join the fight. America’s oligarchs are right to be worried.” The Nation’s editor Katrina vanden Heuvel and executive editor John Nichols published a similar editorial last night. Mamdani “has no higher responsibility than to be a great mayor of New York City,” they wrote. In success, he “has the potential to transform not just a city but the politics of a nation that desperately needs a robust antidote to Donald Trump’s oppressions.” From fringe to media frenzy Just eight months ago, in March, Mamdani held a press conference in Manhattan with barely any journalists in attendance. Now, he is constantly surrounded by cameras. Mamdani comms aide Lekha Sunder posted March and November photos side by side with the caption, “How far we’ve come.” The campaign received more than 400 press RSVPs for Tuesday night’s victory party, including some from international media outlets, according to CNN’s Gloria Pazmino. Many “voices on the left” were there too, “including Drop Site News’ Ryan Grim and Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman,” along with live-streaming star Hasan Piker, who drew a crowd of his own, TheWrap’s Michael Calderone wrote here. Commentators emphasized Mamdani’s media savvy as well as his message consistency. Maybe it doesn’t matter so much “how you use Instagram and TikTok,” Errol Louis said last night on NY1. “What really does matter is going to people and saying, ‘What are the issues that most concern you?’ — writing down what they say; then making that your program; and not talking about anything else.” As journalism professor Jay Rosen has argued over the years, this “citizens agenda” concept also applies well to news coverage. What the polls missed in NJ Here in New Jersey, the governor’s race was expected to be a nail-biter. Why? In part because of the polls showing Sherrill with only a slight lead over Jack Ciattarelli. The RCP average of recent polls had Sherrill with just a 3.3% edge. But she ultimately won 56% to 42%. Polls “said it was too close to call, and she just absolutely thumped” Ciattarelli, Joe Scarborough said on MSNBC this morning. In retrospect, the “tell” was that Sherrill was ahead in every pre-election poll, even though most of the polls overstated support for her rival. How Fox News handled it all Because the key races were all called before Fox’s special coverage started at 10 p.m., we got to watch MAGA devotees Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity cope in real time. Both hosts tried to spin away any suggestion that the losses were a repudiation of Trump. After calling Abigail Spanberger’s victory in Virginia, Watters declared, “The Democrats are going to spin this: ‘This is a referendum on Trump.’ I mean, these are all blue states.” That particular line continued into Hannity’s hour. Hannity also said his phone was blowing up with texts from friends in New York who were “depressed and scared.” Fox’s shows leaned hard into “socialism” fears all night long. Taunting the TV president Here’s an interesting argument from conservative writer Sohrab Ahmari: “The sheer cartoonishness of the Right’s attacks rendered (Mamdani) more sympathetic.” (The aforementioned Michael Calderone compiled all the recent NY Post front pages here.) Mamdani alluded to that “prism of misinformation” last night, and he also presaged the Mamdani-Trump feedback loop that we can expect to see a lot next year. He leaned into Trump’s TV obsession with a big, headline-generating taunt: “Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.” And Trump likely was watching, because Fox News carried Mamdani’s speech in full. Anchor Trace Gallagher invited Trump to call in immediately afterward, but no such luck.
