THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2020 

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Mississippi

Mississippi voters overwhelming approved a new state flag on Election Day, endorsing a blue field with gold and red vertical bars design, centered with a white magnolia flower ringed with stars and the words "In God We Trust."

The yes/no referendum on the new potential flag design was listed on the ballot as Measure 3. As of Wednesday with 98% reporting it had easily passed with 71.6% voting ‘yes.’ This design replaces a controversial previous canton version that had the Confederate battle flag in the upper left corner and filled out by three red, white and blue horizontal bars.

The obvious historical connotations of including the former Rebel emblem in the state's flag had grown increasingly untenable, as every other Southern state that had featured the racist symbol in their state flags had removed it in recent years. That left Mississippi’s flag as the lone holdout.

The final design uses the state’s iconic magnolia flower as its focus, and the other design elements each have their own symbolism. But it's also just aesthetically pleasing and, overall, a beautiful, flag. No longer confederate, no longer ugly. That's an election day Win we can all appreciate.

MEDIA LOSER:
Nate Silver

FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver responded to critics saying his site missed the mark in its 2020 presidential election forecasts, declaring, “F**k you, we did a good job!”

On the FiveThirtyEight podcast, Wednesday, after host Galen Druke pointed out that the “pitchforks are already coming for the pollsters and the prognosticators,” Silver replied, “If they’re coming after FiveThirtyEight, then the answer is f**k you, we did a good job!”

Polling in general has been the object of a great deal of ridicule the last 24 hours, and in fact has been under particular assault ever since 2016.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has said that the polling profession may well be over, after this latest blow to credibility among its audience.

Silver is making his best case that it's the audience who is wrong, and that the pollsters did their job well. But it's hard to imagine that "no YOU suck" will sell many readers, listeners, or viewers. 

The profession doesn't have to be over, or pollsters even that wrong, for this to have been a bad PR week for the pollsters, and for FiveThirtyEight and Nate Silver.

The A-Block

It keeps going, and going...

The votes are still being counted in the 2020 election, and there are states and districts on the table and in contention. Not to mention being protested and fought over. Catch all our coverage from the Mediaite front page, and by our election specific topic areas and tags.

STOP IT

President Donald Trump frantically called for the immediate end of vote tabulation most of Thursday morning — a demand which, if it were carried out, would result in his losing the 2020 election.

Kellyanne Conway, for her part, said to slow the counting down and be patient, in exactly the way the Trump camp has not advocated for weeks.

Trump's supporters, out protesting the not-yet completed vote counting process, can't make up their minds on whether counting of ballots should be halted or increased.

Attacking Fox News on MSNBC

That might sound like a "water is wet" headline, but in this case it wasn't MSNBC commentators bashing Fox. It was Trump supporters, during an MSNBC live shot.

Catastrophic Erosion

“Democrats suffered a catastrophic erosion in Hispanic support,” says Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman. And the numbers, not to mention analysis by the New York Times, support that significant claim.
 


-2 DAYS OUT

With just Negative 2 DAYS to go until Election Day, the lead remains with the challenger.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENED WITH THE VOTES SO FAR.



21% in Two Weeks

The United States hit a sobering milestone on Wednesday, surpassing 100,000 new daily cases of Covid-19.

According to the data being tracked by Johns Hopkins University, 102,831 new cases were recorded on Wednesday. This was the highest one-day increase since the pandemic began earlier this year.

Propaganda

Tommy Christopher addresses an Axios report with a misleading headline suggesting former Vice President Joe Biden is reconsidering his cabinet picks in light of Republican Senate wins.

2024

Supporters of President Trump, both online and on the air, have already started talking about a 2024 Trump run. And as it happens, Trump's been talking about it too, apparently.

Disgusting

A 24-year-old woman was charged with multiple crimes after she was caught on video spitting in a police sergeant’s face during a Wednesday protest in Manhattan, New York. The video shows the gross act.

Veep

Veep fans are beginning to draw parallels between the hit HBO show and the 2020 presidential election, especially since the Trump campaign has demanded that poll workers both count every vote and stop counting the votes — a scene straight from the Nev-AD-a episode.

So, yes, to reiterate, the current actual strategy was once a comedic premise. It's ... less funny this time, we think.

Georgia? Georgia.

ABC News on Thursday morning ran footage of voting taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia - you know, across the pond - in a segment about voting in the state of Georgia. You know, over here. Amazing.
 

Must See Clip

Remixes abound

White House spiritual adviser Paula White has gone viral with her emphatic prayer for the victory of President Donald Trump over former Vice President Joe Biden, prompting a blizzard of reactions on blue-check Twitter.

Evoking slam poetry or bringing bass beats to mind, the clip was remixed with soundtracks. It was also attacked and mocked with less style.

However you slice it, it sure got some attention.

Links We Like

A Warning Sign for Democrats
- DWilliam Saletan, via Slate
Messenger vs. Message
- Erick Erickson, via Substack

The Repudiation
- John Podhoretz, via Commentary

QAnon Is Winning
- Kaitlyn Tiffany, via The Atlantic
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