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By Amanda Carpenter

Canned

While Fox News and CNN carried live coverage throughout Election Night, MSNBC took a break to show repeat programming, which included World Series highlights, in their 10 p.m. hour and some conservatives say it's because host Keith Olbermann was unable to stomach the GOP gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey.

During a normal evening the 8 p.m. "Countdown" re-plays in the 10 p.m. hour, but MSNBC ran promotions during the day Tuesday that promised "special, live editions of 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' at 10." And while Mr. Olbermann took a break, his fellow anchors Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews each pulled late-night, full-hour, live shifts that Election Night.

Jeff Poor, a writer for the right-leaning Media Research Center's blog Newsbusters.org, said, "I think he was just in denial, not wanting to talk about it. At least Matthews and Maddow went live. Had it been the other way around, and it was a big night for the Democrats, I suspect you would have seen flag-to-flag coverage. You wouldn't have seen any canned segments, and had all the play-by-play and reaction to it."

MSNBC confirmed that some of the programming in that slot was taped material, but noted that all elections results were carried live.

"We were live for the first two blocks of the 10pm show with continuing coverage of the results as they came in," MSNBC spokesman Alana Russo said in an e-mail to The Washington Times. "We ran portions of the 8pm 'Countdown' from about 10:25-11pm, then we had a live 'Rachel Maddow Show.' All the results were covered live last night on MSNBC."

Labor pains

A leading group opposing the Employee Free Choice Act hopes that Virginia Republican Robert F. McDonnell's gubernatorial win on Tuesday proves that other candidates must oppose "card check" if they want to win economy voters in the 2010 elections.

According to exit polls, 46 percent of Virginia voters said the economy and jobs were their number one voting issue, and the anti-EFCA Workforce Fairness Institute said in a postelection memo obtained by The Times that Mr. McDonnell's willingness to speak out against the EFCA was a key factor in convincing Virginia voters he would be able to create more jobs thanhis opponent, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds.

The labor-backed Mr. Deeds has said he had "concerns" about the bill and never openly supported it, but he never opposed it outright, either. It was obvious, however, that Mr. McDonnell was firmly against it. The Republican described it as "very un-American" and "anti-competitive" in one interview with the Fairfax County Times, criticized it on national cable news networks, and promised the Virginia Manufacturers Association on a conference call he would "use every resource of my office" to keep it from being passed.

"And while it is true that a host of issues played a role in the race, it is difficult to argue that the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act or EFCA was not central to the debate and had a dramatic impact in favor of one candidate while damaging another," WFI's memo said.

After citing numerous news stories documenting the financial contributions Mr. Deeds received from labor groups and the difficulty he seemed to have taking a strong "for" or "against" position on the bill, the memo concluded: "Creigh Deeds encountered in Virginia the resistance EFCA supporters will meet in close races across the country in 2010: that an overwhelming number of voters - including union households - columnists, editorial boards, and independent organizations all oppose the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act and will fail to support any candidate who doesn't speak out against it in unequivocal terms."

But pro-EFCA American Rights at Work press secretary Josh Goldstein said WFI is engaging in wishful thinking and that the legislation did not play a role in the race.

"The opposition is attempting to resurrect their same failed message from last year's election where they spent tens of millions of dollars in Senate battleground states only to have the public overwhelmingly reject their misleading campaign," Mr. Goldstein said in an e-mail. "Polling continues to demonstrate that voters strongly support measures to strengthen the middle class, like the Employee Free Choice Act."

Five-part series

Details of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's upcoming book tour are starting to leak out and it looks like ABC's Barbara Walters will be spending quite a bit of time with the conservative firebrand and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

ABC announced Mrs. Palin will chat with Mrs. Walters for a five-part series of interviews that will air on "Good Morning America."

And if that's not enough for the former governor, Mrs. Palin is also scheduled for "Oprah" and a number of conservative talk interviews during her book launch week.

• Amanda Carpenter can be reached at acarpenter@washingtontimes.com.