Covering my fifth U.S. election...

You may have seen on the front page of this website, that I’ve embarked on a special series for my other website The Balance, which I’ve very imaginatively called The Road to the White House.

Sadly The Balance has been a bit neglected this year, on account of me being knee-deep (and occasionally higher!) in legal paperwork for my various actions against TVNZ.

But U.S. elections have always been special to me - I covered four of them for Al Jazeera, and live-anchored Joe Biden’s inauguration from Washington as well - so I wanted to make sure that the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris got the ‘Balance treatment’ this time.

This video is the first in the series, and focuses on how to interpret the polls properly - especially the headline nationwide polls.

For example - did Joe Biden win by seven million votes in 2020, or was it just 40,000?

Because what looks like a big or important margin may, in fact, be completely irrelevant to the final results.

Here’s a link to the page at The Balance where I’m collating all the videos. Or alternatively you can go to my YouTube channel where I’ve also done some recent Viditorials on the Middle East conflict.

Today I posted this video, the sixth in the series so far.

I think it’s actually the one I’m most proud of, because it best illustrates what I’m trying to do - take a topic and present it in the most even-handed and informative manner I can. It’s not ‘boths-sidesing’ - it’s introducing people to another side.

Yes - Donald Trump’s lies and flaws need to be called out, but you can’t just dismiss him out of hand either. It's one thing to be incredulous about something; but it's quite another to understand why it is so.

Anyway, have a watch and let me know what you think.

I’m aiming to put out new content as often as possible, and am always keen for ideas for what the next one should be about.