I WISH PEOPLE WOULD STUDY RECENT HISTORY. Former Minnesota senator, Democratic presidential aspirant, and independent presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy died today. The 7 pm radio news broadcast provided a brief biography, mentioning that Senator McCarthy's protest campaign contributed to President Lyndon Johnson opting not to stand for re-nomination or re-election, with Mr Johnson's vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, obtaining the Democratic nomination and Richard Nixon winning "handily."

Erm, handily? Look at the map here. (Note that the major parties swap colors according to some convoluted formula. The blue states went for Nixon. The red states went for Humphrey. Then look at the old Confederacy. There are some maroon states. Those went for Alabama governor George Wallace, who ran on a right-populist platform that included an appeal to Northern white ethnics whose schools were the object of bussing to end de facto segregation.)

Neither the Wikipedia entry nor this site will tell you that the major networks (the three legacies of clear channel frequency allocations in the 1920s and VHF channel allocations in the 1940s) did not call California, and the election, for Richard Nixon until breakfast time on Wednesday morning.