The other day Murray Chass, the former NYT sports reporter, penned a much picked-up piece about how the considerably small number of newspapers who had sent reporters to cover the World Series was a "startling barometer of how critical the health of the newspaper industry is in this country." Yes, the newspaper industry, as we are all far too familiar, is in critical health. And maybe people are less interested in baseball, for whatever reason ($10 hot chocolate at Yankee Stadium may have something to do with that). Or maybe the country has just discovered a new national pastime. Namely, politics.

Before it became clear that Mayor Bloomberg was thisclose to losing the NYC mayoral race (thus making yesterday's election actually compelling), I opined in our liveblog that I was not sold on "any of these races being huge, or any more significant than they have been in past years. I think we're all just election junkies." And the coverage of last night would appear to prove me out. Check out this rundown of cable coverage as listed on Mike Allen's Pl