POLITICAL pundits have been conducting their own post-mortems on the 2004 election ever since President Bush clinched a second term in office Wednesday. So I thought it only fitting to delve into politics for a second consecutive week and conduct my own examination of The Cavalier Daily's Election Day coverage.
The newspaper did a complete, thorough job of covering the election on Tuesday and Wednesday. From writers in the News, Opinion and Life sections to photographers and graphic designers, The Cavalier Daily's staff put together two days' worth of newspapers that gave readers multiple angles on local, state and national races.
National coverage
Several members of the staff deserve credit for sacrificing a few days of school (unwillingly, I'm sure) and going to Boston and Washington to cover the presidential campaigns first-hand.
Associate News editors Matt Galati and Christopher Jones each wrote articles on the pre-election mood in those two cities and apparently stayed awake well into Wednesday morning preparing results stories. Photographers David Ganske, Peter Dunn and Becky Davis provided visual evidence of the events in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. And Opinion editor Maggie Bowden and associate Opinion editor Elliot Haspel penned columns that had an added air of authority because they were based on what the columnists personally saw in these cities.
The Cavalier Daily could have relied on Associated Press articles to summarize the national picture. The paper's decision to instead send its own reporters, photographers and columnists to the heart of the action ultimately benefited readers. Their work didn't directly relate to the University, but it did show students what was happening on a national level through the eyes of their peers.
Local coverage
Of course, The Cavalier Daily's good work covering national events would have been negated if the paper hadn't delivered the local election stories it did.
On Tuesday, staff writer Becca Garrison wrote about student efforts to encourage voter turnout. Associate Life editor Hannah Woolf also looked at the media's efforts to target young voters like University students.
The Cavalier Daily's post-election coverage included an article by associate News editor Monika Galvydis about an election party/war room analysis attended by student interns at the University's Center for Politics. Life editor Elizabeth Katz wrote about students voting for the first time, and associate Life editor Defne Gunay offered international students' perspectives -- a very different take on the election.
The one major problem with the local coverage was the fifth Congressional District race should have received a more substantial article with better placement. Republican Rep. Virgil Goode, the incumbent and winner, wasn't available for comment by press time, but The Cavalier Daily spent so much time writing about the race in previous weeks that it should have been talked about more.
Design
Graphic designers, like photographers, rarely receive attention for their work. But The Cavalier Daily could not have pulled off Wednesday's "2004 Election Edition" without them.
Maps and graphics gave readers detailed information about election results across the state and country. The design staff obviously worked long and hard to get the most up-to-date results possible since some of those graphics were updated at 5 a.m.
The design did have a couple of noticeable flaws. The maps looked slightly confusing since the dark red meant to represent heavily Republican areas showed up as brown instead. That problem was likely caused by the printer, not the designers.
The designers and editors, however, did have control over the placement of articles. The stories about former student Andrew Alston's murder trial and the increase in the University's minimum wage, while important, should not have been mixed in with election coverage. Ideally, the designers and editors could have placed those two articles on a separate page.
Endorsements
Bowden's and Haspel's columns from Boston and Washington weren't the only highlights of Tuesday's Opinion page.
Like many other newspapers, The Cavalier Daily endorsed a presidential candidate on Oct. 7. But the paper's endorsement of Democratic contender Sen. John Kerry only gave the collective opinion of the managing board and did not show the divisions among staff columnists, many of whom ardently supported Bush.
The "Election 2004 Presidential Endorsements" section briefly summarized the positions of 21 columnists and showed the diversity of opinions among the Opinion staff. Eight columnists personally endorsed Bush, 11 endorsed Kerry and a couple encouraged readers to go beyond the two-party system.
The Cavalier Daily added to the variety of opinions by publishing brief personal endorsements from a few readers. By restricting the length of the readers' -- and columnists' -- comments, the newspaper also demonstrated what issues most influenced their votes.
The results of the presidential election once again displayed a distinct national split between Republicans and Democrats; the Opinion page reflected just that.
Jeremy Ashton can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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