TV news folks have had five days now — the duration thus far of BitterGate– to hone their headlines in order to best capture this latest campaign kerfuffle (and viewers). So what works of chyron-ic genius have we seen on TV in recent hours? Frankly, I’m underwhelmed.
CBS’ Early Show went with the uninspired “A ‘Bitter Battle” to accompany its BitterGate report this morning. Ditto Fox News’ Fox & Friends First. CNN’s changed it up a tad with “‘Bitter’ Controversy” and “‘Bitter’ Debate.”
On ABC, Good Morning America baffled with this headline: “Bitter Over Beers? What voters think of Obama remark,” which — oh, now I get it…I think? — led into a report from the Waterway Raw Bar & Grill somewhere in Pennsylvania in which bar patrons were asked for the first three words that come to mind when they hear “Obama” and “Clinton” (one middle-aged white guy answered “black” for the former and “woman, witchy and sly” for the latter).
NBC’s Today Show dropped the word “bitter” entirely from its headline today, wrestling instead with the (kind of hilarious) question of, “Obama vs. Clinton: Who’s More Blue Collar?”
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.