Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?  

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

I think the 1-hour per night has been pretty standard for the last few cycles on the big networks. They mostly just carry the big-name speeches and the nomination vote. All the news nets will handle the 24/7 coverage; most of them have already been camped out at the Pepsi Center since Friday.

I'm sure they'll also be streaming it all online, so you could see it that way if you don't have cable/satellite.

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

Maybe it's because of people like me. For the life of me, I can't think of a single reason I'd want to watch either convention. The debates, yes. But the conventions? What of interest will really happens there? Then again, the first time Obama came to national prominence was during his speech as the last convention.

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

It has been a very long time since the conventions actually decided anything. Once upon a time there were few primaries or caucuses, and it wasn't possible to secure enough delegates to win the nomination outright by running in them. They were a way for candidates without only state or regional bases (without alliances to other state and big city political organizations) to demonstrate strength and position themselves for the conventions - where the real contest would be fought out. When's the last time it took more than one ballot to "select" a nominee at either convention? 1960?

For decades the conventions have been giant commercials for the two parties - packaged, scripted and controlled to within an inch of their lives. The only reason they're still held is for the publicity and as a way of rewarding hard working party workers with a nice junket and a chance to rub shoulders with the political headliners. First the audience (which stopped watching in droves) and then the networks figured this out, and started scaling back coverage to something that better reflected their inherent drama and news value. The cameras and mikes are still on gavel to gavel, to grab highlights for the regular news casts or to break into regular programs in case something interesting actually happens. ("Something interesting" meaning "something bad", because the only surprises in events like these are the unpleasant ones.)

As always, both parties will schedule both their major players and their rising stars for the few hours of primetime that will actually be covered by the networks. (As noted, Obama first made a splash in Democratic party circles with a speech at the 2004 convention. And Mario Cuomo made himself a national political figure - for a time, anyway - with a well-received convention speech.) But the bulk of the coverage will be on the network's allied cable outlets, CNN and Fox, the party web sites and various other political blogs and sites and on radio.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

Let's see, we already know who's going to be running for president, because the networks have been running it nonstop since last November. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it, and would prefer if the Republican convention wasn't interferring with my football viewing.

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

While Joseph DeMartino is right that "it has been a very long time since the conventions actually decided anything," the real reason you don't see wall to wall coverage of the convention on any of the broadcast nets is directly attributable to the rise of CNN (and it's newer competitors, Fox News and MSNBC). They've simply got that market cornered.
(As a news and politics junkie, the cable news nets were the channels I missed the most without cable the last three years. Now that I'm back in my home town — and can sponge off my parents' cable! — MSNBC has been the soundtrack to my telecommuting experience.)
That being said, the rest of TV is pretty much a programming dead zone for the next two weeks. Not only are the cable nets (well, at least MSNBC) going 24/7 for the duration, but the networks are actually stepping up their coverage from 2004, according to the New York Times:

Business / Media & Advertising

Networks Hope to Find Unique TV Moment at Democratic Convention

By BRIAN STELTER

Published: August 25, 2008

2004 was a watershed year for convention coverage, when the Fox News Channel attracted the highest ratings of any network, cable or broadcast, during the Republican convention. But NBC, ABC and CBS — each of which skipped a day of the conventions and ran an hour of prime-time coverage on the other three days — all lost viewers compared with 2000. That phenomenon led some anchors and executives to predict further retrenchment in coverage come 2008.

Instead, the opposite happened: the networks all plan to show the 10 p.m. hour of each convention for four consecutive nights. And new faces will anchor the coverage on each network, with Brian Williams on NBC, Charles Gibson on ABC and Katie Couric on CBS. The conventions still are, in the words of the anchor Shepard Smith on Fox on Thursday, “one ginormous infomercial,” but the ratings for the political primary season were unusually strong and the election seems to be must-see TV this year.

As it did in 2004, PBS will carry the convention from 8 to 11 each night. The cable networks will be more comprehensive, with Fox News, CNN and MSNBC promising 18 to 20 hours of live coverage a day. In addition, any number of Web sites, including the official ones of each party, will stream the conventions live online.

Considering the historic nature of Barack Obama's candidacy, and the general media fascination with this election cycle generally, I think you'll see quite a bit of coverage on the networks. I know I plan to watch NBC's coverage of the 10:00 pm hour OTA from home with my DTA converter box, because the signal's much clearer than Time Warner's lousy analog feed. I'll probably start with the cable nets on Monday night and compare to what PBS is offering from the 8:00 hour on. If the PBS coverage holds up, I'll still with OTA from home for the rest of the week; PBS from 8:00-10:00, NBC from 10:00 on. And then all over again for the RNC the next week.

Unfortunately I have to go to court on Thursday night over a traffic infraction from the 4th of July; does anyone know what time Obama's scheduled to go on? I can miss Gore and Ritter if I have to, but the Obama and McCain speeches are the main event of each week!

Re: Where's the broadcast coverage of the Dem/GOP conventions?

Other than a direct answer to the narrow question asked in the thread title, the rest of the thread is prohibited under HTF's long-established "no politics" rule. I'm sure the very intelligent contributors to this thread know that.

M.