Lester Holt's calm, the New Yorker's embarrassment, Olberman's ... What?? And ELECTION DAY 2020!!!

THE DAILY NEWSLETTER - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Lester Holt

Lester Holt closed NBC Nightly News on Election Eve with a message about this “deep breath moment” for the country before Election Day.

“At about this time tomorrow evening, the first polls in the 2020 election will begin to close,” he said. “If that just gave you a knot in your stomach, it’s okay. Me too.”

Holt said the election “has often felt like a powder keg with a fuse burning down to November 3rd” and even said “it’s allowed our minds to sometimes drift into dark places, about potential for violence and whether the outcome will be accepted.”

Election Day requires everyone’s “collective patience and critical thinking skills” he added, concluding that “Democracy is messy, but we have got to let it work. If not for ourselves, then for our children, who you know are watching us.”

There's something to be said for putting issues aside and simply encouraging people take a breath and remain calm.

A good message.

MEDIA LOSER:
The New Yorker

Staff of the New Yorker took to Twitter to complain about how difficult it is navigate a New Yorker subscriber’s account — even if you write for the magazine.

“I’ve tried 5 times over the past month to renew my subscription to the magazine I happen to write for only to end up in a limbo of ‘one moment please,'” New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe said in a Twitter post. “Imagine the surge in revenue if we could just devise an interface that didn’t prevent people from giving us their money.”

The New Yorker has faced backlash for its difficult-to-manage subscription service before. Last year, Nieman Lab documented the raft of complaints that the Condé Nast magazine just couldn’t keep paying subscribers logged in.

The post from Keefe prompted other members of the New Yorker staff to share their own troubles with the magazine’s notoriously tricky subscription service this series of public tweets.

Embarrassing.

The A-Block

ELECTION DAY 2020

Mediaite's full day of coverage is well under way, and will continue overnight and into the morning as this important but fraught election is at its ultimate moment. And although almost 100 million votes have already been cast, the day is just getting started.

We have the videos and tweets, the live streams and the updates, the whats and the wheres and the hows. From vote totals to polling to bellwethers and in between. Stay with Mediaite all day.

And check our state by state tracking, with dedicated posts for the key battlegrounds and toss-ups, for wall-to-wall coverage.

Internal Memo

Dr. Deborah Birx , increasingly a dissenting voice in the White House, issued an internal report on Monday that took the administration strongly to task for failing to take “much more aggressive action” as the country suffers from a massive resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic.

Hitler Stuffs

Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a psychiatrist who has appeared on CNN and MSNBC and briefed members of Congress, argued in a disastrous Twitter thread on Monday that President Donald Trump isn't just similar to, but worse than murderous Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Seven Exes

Several disgruntled ex-staffers of President Donald Trump have taken to social media to flaunt their vote this Election Day and — surprise, surprise — they’re supporting Joe Biden.

Maskless Partying

Kendall Jenner is facing backlash over her star-studded, maskless indoor Halloween birthday bash.

WHAT KEITH? WHAT?!?

Sportscaster and political commentator Keith Olbermann incurred fierce backlash when he referred to President Donald Trump as a “whiny little Kunta Kinte,” referencing the name of the famous character from Roots.

On Tuesday morning, Olbermann posted a clip of Trump bashing Fox News during his lengthy Fox & Friends interview, and captioned the segment “Yes @realDonaldTrump has always been, will always be, and on the day of his bid for re-election, still is: a whiny little Kunta Kinte”.

The tweet sparked immediate backlash, and made Olbermann a top national trending topic. Journalists, media figures, and legions of blue-checks piled on and on. It was BRUTAL.

Must See Clip

Talkin ‘Bout a Revolution

Four-time Grammy winner Tracy Chapman made an extremely rare TV appearance on Monday night — performing on Late Night with Seth Meyers to urge viewers to “go vote.”

Chapman performed her hit song Talkin ‘Bout a Revolution, from her 1988, six-time platinum self-titled debut album.

This newsletter writer was already a fan.
Listen to this stellar performance and you'll be, too.

Links We Like

If I had to guess: How today could play out.
- Erick Erickson, via Confessions of a Political Junkie
Hope Dies Last
- Sarah Longwell, via The Bulwark
Why every state should adopt a mask mandate, in 4 charts
- Lois Parshley and Youyou Zhou , via Vox
Be ready for a lengthy, vicious struggle
- Thomas B. Edsall, via New York Times

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