This week, a hippopotamus made the correct call: Moo Deng, the superstar pygmy hippo in Thailand, picked Donald Trump as the next big boss of the White House by devouring a bowl of fruit with his name on it and ignoring the one that said ‘Kamala Harris’.
This was a good 24 hours before Trump claimed, “We made history’’, racing toward an emphatic win in the 2024 United States presidential election. News media, worldwide, reported Moo Deng’s remarkable prediction, although CNN International uncharitably said there were claims of more fruit in Trump’s bowl to entice the hippo.
Well, there were certainly many more votes in his favour: On 6 November afternoon (IST), the Republican candidate led Democrat Harris by almost 5 million votes.
Much of the news media was stumped by the margin of victory and that Trump swept the seven battleground states too since all the opinion polls had predicted “one of the closest (contests) in battleground states…’’(BBC World). Indians were perhaps comforted to learn that our psephologists are not alone in making poor political forecasts.
More seriously, though, each glaring error in poll projections strengthens the suspicion that opinion polls are simply being used to generate and heighten public interest in elections — and media consumption. It’s time news media ignored them instead of making them headline news. They mislead the public and leave everyone confused when there’s a very different result.
“What accounts for what we are seeing?’’ asked a bemused news anchor on CBS News (broadcast in India by Times Now).
“Err, none of us thought it (the results) would be so early,’’ said the CNN news host. “It’s not shaping up to be the neck-to-neck race the polls had said,” added a CNN-News 18 anchor.
Just hours earlier, while voting was in progress, the same news anchors had been preparing for a very different outcome: “It could be drawn out… and we may not know (the results) for a long time,’’ said a reporter on Al Jazeera.
Also read: A Donald Trump presidency threatens Indian economy. Just see his record
A ‘great comeback’
So, when Harris headed toward a decisive loss in the matter of a few hours, many television anchors and reporters were left, well, saying the same thing, about Trump: “This is a huge, astonishing political comeback,’’ declared BBC’s Washington correspondent.
“It’s the greatest political comeback since 1892,’’ said a Fox News anchor. “This is a historic comeback….’’ agreed a Bloomberg commentator. “This is an extraordinary comeback,” added a CNN International commentator. Got it? Trump is the Comeback Kid at 78.
As for Kamala Harris, despite all the hoopla on shows like Saturday Night Live, where she appeared in a last-ditch campaign effort, for all the support from celebrities and show business, the endorsements and open support from news media like The New York Times, CNN, etcetera, the verdict on counting day was uniform: “She has underperformed…’’ said a reporter on NDTV 24×7. “She is underperforming,’’ said CNN-News 18. “She will need to outperform…’’ said CBS after Trump had taken the key state of Georgia and was leading in all the swing states. “And that is not very likely or possible.’’
News channels in the US were as polarised as in India. We saw a CNN versus Fox News contest: While everyone at CNN, barring the Republican panellists, looked as if they had just lost the election, Fox News anchors were laughing all over the place. And while they tried to be polite, they openly sneered at issues championed by Harris, like abortion, changing the course of the voting. “Manipulating’’ and “narrowcasting’’ don’t work, said one Fox anchor. Political analyst Kellyanne Conway said it much better: While Harris was looking at voters “waist down”, Trump saw them from “waist up’’.
Say this for CNN and Fox, they hold civilised debates. No shouting, talking over opponents, or anchors speaking for longer than participants—and most of all, no interruptions. Each speaker delivers their piece and then politely listens to the next person; no matter how strongly they disagree, they do not cut in.
Anyone listening at Indian news channels?
Some Hindi melodrama
Speaking of Indian news channels, the English language ones made a huge effort to send reporters to the US for live updates—NDTV 24×7, India Today, and CNN-News had senior editors out there.
There were plenty of Indian-American guests on all the shows. They helped explain why NRIs typically supported Trump and Republicans — “We are mostly in business” — and why they hadn’t flocked to the Harris corner despite her Indian origins— “[We] didn’t know her [enough] to take a risk on her… a known person (Trump) is better than an unknown (Harris)…’’ (TV9 Bharatvarsh).
There were former Indian diplomats and current political experts like Swasti Rao and Dhruv Jaishanker for strategic analysis of India-US relations (all is well) and American academics or journalists on hand to analyse the results.
The Hindi news channels were out there on Wednesday and tried to inject some melodrama into the proceedings: “Kaante ki takkar,” said Zee News for the longest time, “Kamala Harris White House ki boss banegi?’’
“Kaisa mahaul hai?’’ was another favourite question (TV9). “Great future,’’ said NRI Dr Dheeraj Kaul on Republic TV.
Over the next week
Lots will be written and read into the Trump victory this week and Harris defeat.
Already the knives are out: On BBC World, an expert said former President Joe Biden would have fared better than Harris.
On CNN International, they said it’s the economy, stupid, and immigration that felled Harris.
Al Jazeera found Trump voters confident that with him in the White House, no one would “bully’’ the US—as if anyone dared.
“He’s the best thing for the country,’’ said the supporter.
“They’re both terrible,’’ declared a New Yorker to CNN International.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)