[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: What We Missed in Boston

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What We Missed in Boston

August 1, 2004
 By ALESSANDRA STANLEY 



 

PEOPLE, particularly network anchors, complain that
conventions are too tailored to television. Actually, they
are not tailored enough. If the parties really wanted the
networks to give them gavel-to-gavel coverage, they would
cut the event down to one night, not select a nominee in
advance, and let viewers call in and, as they do on the Fox
Network hit, vote for their favorite speaker - Convention
Idol. 

That would get Dan Rather's folksy idioms flowing. 

Instead, Republicans and Democrats plod on with their
creaky tradition, dragging out a foregone conclusion over
four days, flattering state delegates, wining and dining
donors, and letting obscure elected officials, even the
nutty ones, have their say at the podium. Political
analysts disparage the display as a political
"infomercial," but to the credit of the organizers, they
are not catering to the network audience nearly as much as
they could. 

So, are Americans getting the convention coverage they
deserve? Or are the television networks shirking the civic
responsibility that was implicit when the government gave
them the airwaves and let them rake in billions off a
public trust? 

One thing is inarguable: Even though each of the three
networks devoted only three hours to the entire event,
coverage of political conventions has never been more
varied and plentiful. Viewers could hear every speech,
count every delegate vote and see every Democratic bigwig
and media diva by switching among PBS, C-Span, three
24-hour cable news networks, and, for the first time this
week, ABC's fledgling digital cable news network, "ABC News
Now." Peter Jennings, who has turned into the Captain Ahab
of the network anchors, relentlessly pushed the ABC news
division to deliver gavel-to-gavel coverage to an almost
empty house. (Within the universe of broadcast and cable,
even digital cable, the little niche of "ABC News Now"
little niche is a microdot.) 

What was missing last week, however, was the unassailable
authority that a network anchor brings to convention
coverage. Mr. Brokaw and Mr. Rather complained that they
could not argue to their corporate bosses for more time
when so few scoops were to be had. But particularly when
there is no real news, viewers benefit from following a
trusted observer who can weave together disparate strands -
a rogue faction in the Colorado delegation, a candidate's
use of imagery and props, the leitmotifs of even the duller
speeches - and bring to life an important political moment.
Instead, Tom Brokaw and Mr. Rather took this convention
pass/fail, interviewing a few headliners in the sky boxes,
kibitzing with their colleagues and house experts, but
never engaging fully in the drama beneath them. 

Political conventions are like 19th-century novels; they
benefit from an omniscient narrator. 

Instead, viewers got the television equivalent of the
modern paperback - from the Nicholson Baker-novel
obsessiveness of "ABC News Now" to the fluffy,
self-absorbed novellas of anchors interviewing each other
on MSNBC and Fox News. The enlightened viewer could design
do-it-yourself reportage - a little C-Span and PBS, some
CNN and an hour on a network on prime time. (Most Americans
chose to tune out completely.) Television is a passive
medium. It would have been nice to have the option of
letting a trusted network anchor make those choices. 

That is one reason why the comedian Jon Stewart was so
popular a compass to convention coverage. "The Daily Show,"
his program on Comedy Central, did not just mock the
politicians - easy targets well flayed by Jay Leno, David
Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, et al. Mr. Stewart also zeroed in
on the television journalists who chose to snub the
convention as they covered it. Mr. Stewart lampooned those
who deplored the slick, synthetic packaging of events, then
grew indignant when Al Sharpton diverged from the script.
("I think it is an insult to African-American voters that
they are giving this guy as much time as they have,"
groused Howard Fineman, a Newsweek columnist who as a
panelist on MSNBC, alongside Chris Matthews, was on the air
more than most speakers.) 

And "The Daily Show" exposed the inexperience of NBC's next
evening news anchor, Brian Williams, who crashed his way
through the crowd to buttonhole Mr. Sharpton right after
his electrifying speech and then could not think of a
question. Mr. Stewart showed a tape of a slightly
disheveled Mr. Williams telling Mr. Sharpton that he had
been watching the teleprompter "while you did a riff on
whatever you did a riff on." 

Some of the most memorable moments on television had almost
nothing to do with the convention itself, notably Michael
Moore on Fox News badgering Bill O'Reilly into submissive
silence by asking if he would send his own child to Iraq.
Yet there were interesting speeches by nonfamous
politicians. Even the cable news networks studiously
avoided showing them, preferring to interview politicians
and other journalists in the pristine sanctity of sky boxes
and makeshift outdoor sets -as if trying to demarcate a
cordon sanitaire between the convention and those who cover
it. 

But the sanctimony of network news executives who complain
of feeling used by the parties rings hollow. Their standard
for what constitutes news is, to say the least, pliable:
NBC's convention coverage included Ben Affleck in Fenway
Park pitching baseballs to Katie Couric on "Today." 

Instead of scorning the event, the networks would do better
by working with convention planners more closely. Both have
plenty to gain: Political parties and broadcast networks
alike are steadily losing market share (the first to
independent voters or simply nonvoters, the second to cable
and DVD's). 

Ratings for cable news and PBS increased over the
convention. If the broadcast networks had provided more
coverage and given a sleeker presentation, millions more
viewers might have been tempted to tune in. Conventions
will never get huge ratings or make the networks money, but
they only come once every four years. 

NBC has proved ingenious at luring viewers who don't like
sports to watch the Olympics by milking each athlete's
résumé for Hallmark moments; it could stir up similar
mini-dramas around elected officials. An NBC promotional
spot highlighting the Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin
starts this way: "A lifetime spent alone under water." The
story of Dennis Kucinich could be packaged much the same
way, though perhaps more succinctly: "A lifetime spent
alone." 

For now, Mr. Jennings says ABC's "mini-me" digital channel
coverage is at least a consolation. When Mr. O'Reilly of
Fox News asked him, "So you're not offended by this
contrived display?" Mr. Jennings replied: "I don't see any
point in being offended by it. We are here. It is an
opportunity. They do what they do. We do what we do. And
it'll be exactly the same for the Republican Party." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/01/weekinreview/01stan.html?ex=1092378738&ei=1&en=ebd040780be207d8


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