NOVEMBER
7, 2004 --
LPR
went to Rockefeller Plaza election night to view NBC's coverage
of the presidential vote-tallying.
The site had been renamed Democracy Plaza, and it included exhibits of a mock-up
of Air Force One and a display of the Declaration of Independence. The renaming
of the plaza was, however, not entirely independent. Signs proclaimed that
this "Democracy Plaza" was "proudly sponsored by Bank of America."
(It is not clear to LPR if this sponsorship was mentioned by NBC when its correspondents
told viewers that they were reporting from Democracy Plaza.)
Looking up at the skyscrapers surrounding the plaza, LPR noted that the NBC
peacock logo was proudly displayed on skyscrapers -- kind of like the bat
signal in Batman comic books.
One of the quotations on display in the plaza was this one from Margaret Mead: "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
It is not clear to LPR how this observation is consistent with the notion of
democracy.
NBC's election night coverage included red and blue streamers - -indicating
electoral votes -- hanging from the side of the GE Building (GE is NBC's parent
company) facing the plaza's ice-skating rink. An election map apparently covered
the rink's surface; it was not visible to LPR or to the many people who gathered
to watch the NBC election production, which included booths for NBC correspondents
Tom Brokaw and
Tim Russert, and for Chris Matthews, for MSNBC, joined by Joe Scarborough,
Andrea Mitchell, Dee Dee Myhers
and Ron Reagan.
The Brokaw-Russert booth was at the
east side of the ice-skating rink; the Matthews booth was on 50th Street, across
from the north side of the
rink. It seemed to LPR that many in the "Democracy Plaza" crowd were
Kerry supporters. The crowd got noticeably thinner after NBC gave Ohio to President
Bush, showing him just one vote shy of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
A smaller crowd gathered to watch CNN's election night coverage at Broadway
and 43rd Street. And across the street, a Times Square screen showed NBC coverage.
Thus, a person viewing election night coverage outside the tv studio could
see CNN giving President Bush 249 electoral votes, and NBC giving Mr. Bush
269 votes.
There were still people outside the CNN studio when LPR finally left midtown
well past 2 a.m.
A few people followed election night coverage on monitors at Fox, at 1211 Avenue
of the Americas. LPR saw no outside viewers at CBS or ABC.
LPR returned to Democracy Plaza November 3, hoping to see the concession speech
of Senator John F. Kerry. This address had been announced for 1 p.m. LPR then
learned that it would be given at 2 p.m. One last
Kerry flip-flop? LPR wondered.
Alas, the exigencies of avoiding a parking ticket for overtime at a meter kept
LPR from viewing the Kerry speech from a monitor next to the Chris Matthews
booth.
On reaching "Democracy Plaza", LPR saw two grim-looking New York
City policemen wearing steel helmets and holding serious automatic weapons.
Election night is, of course, a function of a
democratic country. The presence of the throng drawn to the NBC ground-level
glass studios and the smaller group of people at CNN seemed, to LPR, celebrations
of our great tradition of peaceful transfer of political power. And what is
the place of steel-helmeted city
police officers in a plaza named "Democracy"?
LPR got word that NBC and Fox gave Ohio's 20 electoral votes to President Bush
by means of a transistor radio. Soon after hearing this report, LPR drew the
attention of a French tv crew at 50th Street and Seventh Avenue and was interviewed
on camera by a French reporter who seemed a bit grim when she was informed
that the Ohio vote indicated the re-election of Mr. Bush.
Perhaps the most remarkable occurrence LPR observed in midtown, election night,
was the sight of the LPRmobile with trunk open, on the northeast corner of
Broadway at 51st Street. (Apparently LPR inadvertently opened the trunk via
remote key two hours earlier, after parking the car.) Nothing in the trunk,
whose contents included a Canon camera, was disturbed.
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Watching
the NBC monirtor showing Kerry conceding, November 3.
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Steel
helmet with automatic weapon in Democracy Plaza, November
3.
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