A few months after his death in 2003, Knopf published a book of essays by David Brinkley ("Brinkley's Beat") that included an elegant and brutal evisceration of the American political convention: "It sprang up," he wrote, with evident relish, "almost organically out of the rich soil of American politics, and it grew and flourished for decades, until that soil began to grow barren. Eventually, the convention grew barren as well ..."
Barren, boring, bilious, bumptious, blustery - is there any other "B" word you can think of that has been used by the major broadcast networks as both evidence and justification for cutting back convention coverage to its lowest levels since television coverage began in 1948?
Brinkley, who worked 24 conventions from 1952 to 1996, came to despise these things, and so have ABC, CBS and NBC, which will air a total of just nine prime-time hours this week (versus a total of 72 hours in 1984).
But as the Democratic National Convention begins at Fleet Center in Boston today, the grand old anchorman of ABC and NBC would surely be amused by what the convention has now become: As much a reflection of the TV industry's own vanities, ambitions and eccentricities as of the political parties themselves.
That alone should make this week's big show the greatest one on Earth until late August, when the Republican National Convention gets under way at Madison Square Garden.
Don't believe us? Some evidence: Chris Nowinski, a 6-foot-4 wrestler (finishing move? "Brass Knuckles") will wander the floor for Spike TV's "Monday Night Raw," while Ana Marie Cox, the colorful and scatological blogger of "Wonkette" renown, has the mike for MTV, along with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. "Fake" news program "The Daily Show" has secured floor passes for the first time, which means fake correspondents Rob Corddry, Stephen Colbert, Ed Helms and Steve Carell may be lavished more attention by delegates than real ones.
Viewers will immediately notice other "what's-wrong- with-this-picture" oddities. Al-Jazeera, for example, will have a sky booth, but ABC News will not. For its main broadcast booth, CNN has forsworn the nosebleed section of Fleet Center for a cozy one on the floor. Fox News, however, has six skyboxes.
This richly spiced TV soup will contain a little something for all tastes and appetites. You want the big network-perspective-from-30,000-feet? You're in luck. This marks the last Democratic Convention for Tom Brokaw, and coming out party, so to speak, for Brian Williams. Is bluster and bloviation more to your taste? Chris Matthews anchors MSNBC's coverage, while Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity lord over the proceedings for FNC, which has expanded its live coverage (over 2000) by some 25 hours.
Meanwhile, ABC News is already hands-down winner of this week's chutzpah award (bestowed by its competitors.) Starting today, the network of Brinkley launches a so-called "multiplatform news programming venture" - ABC News Now - that will provide viewers with a whopping 24 hours of daily TV coverage anchored by Peter Jennings, with much- needed assists from Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Claire Shipman and many others. The other networks have scoffed at the digital broadcasting experiment because you need to be a technological whiz to see any of it. (Whiz kids and Time Warner digital cable subscribers will want to turn to Channel 730 to see this, though no channel allocation for Cablevision's digital subscribers was available by deadline.)
As always, there are true believers among the assembled TV journalists who resolutely defend the news value of these affairs. They also may have a point: "We are an evenly divided country," says Steve Scully, C-SPAN's political editor. "From Iraq to the economy to terrorism, so my genuine sense is that there's more interest in [this] post-9/11 convention than in past conventions because there is more at stake."
C-SPAN, of course, goes gavel to gavel, but then so does (surprise!) CBS News, if you include its streaming coverage on the web (www. cbsnews.com). Among broadcasters, PBS' good old reliable "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" will air three hours each night (don't plan on any bells, whistles or wrestlers here).
Technology - as always - will take a deep bow this week, too. Fifty-six years ago, huge "Image Orthicons" were planted on the floor of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. This week, CNN anchors such as Wolf Blitzer will be outfitted with mikes that "you won't even notice," says the network's convention production chief, David Bohrman. "It's incredibly small [and] radically cuts down on noise."
And, we haven't even mentioned the Big Show itself. As convention viewing fans well know, these have long been designed for TV audiences. As such, the pro- forma roll call - for example - will take place Wednesday at 11 p.m. (when most East Coast viewers have long since bailed). But vice presidential candidate John Edwards will speak hours earlier, in prime time, even before he's officially nominated.
If none of this should convince you to tune in, consider the possibility of the unexpected. As C-SPAN's Scully explains, "At every convention, there are moments that happen that no one can count on."
One such memorable media moment occurred in 1996, when Ted Koppel and most of "Nightline's" production crew abandoned the Republican convention in San Diego due to profound lack of news.
"Filling a whole half hour was getting a little tough," says Leroy Sievers, the show's executive producer, who recalls they left after the second day. This time, "we've got an idea on how to fill that half- hour every night."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
Return to In the Press....