• by November 3, 2004

Okay, so I'll admit, I'm not feeling so good today.

But all you feisty pen pals knew that already.

Today, the Minute has nothing to do with online advertising and marketing, and everything to do with the great offline medium - television.

Yep. While hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people hovered on the Web yesterday and throughout the night, they were also glued to their TV sets. Last night was a channel-surfer's dream, a smorgasbord of network coverage - a buffet of CNN, a little bit of CBS' folksy and extremely cautious Dan Rather, a smidge of Fox, and more than a bit of NBC, given Tom Brokaw's final tour of duty on the anchor desk.

I channel-surfed at an election returns party last night among a bunch of people who ate and drank their way through the evening trying to figure out the electoral map. We debated, guffawed, and screamed at the TV. One guy ran a pool on the battleground states' electoral votes.

After a fashion, when we saw nothing moving and that network commentators, analysts, and pundits were all saying the same thing - basically, nothing - we flipped to the "Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

Amid the hyper-driven, surreal tone of the night, the "Daily Show," in real-time, seemed to be the only thing that made sense, even if it's nonsense. The pieces were pitch-perfect and hilarious. The interview with William Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and Rev. Al Sharpton was priceless. We were choking with laughter over the vignette "Can Voting Kill You," and the man-on-the-street interviews were over-the-top - more than they usually are.

Today, in this TiVo-nation, chock full of disruptive technologies, fragmented media, and a populace nursing a post-election night hangover, TV played, and continues to play, a major role in delivering real news, fake funny news, commentary, hyperbole, and all the dramatic images (the long lines at polling places, the faces of rallying voters waiting for an exuberant candidate, and Senator Kerry's concession speech), that we have come to expect and even find comforting.

We sat in front of the glowing orb last night until our eyes closed.