TV viewers have plenty of convention choices
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
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For TV people, a busy summer is about to become busier. Political conventions loom.
"The Olympics have pressed the conventions together," said David Bohrman, head of CNN's Washington bureau.
Previous years had a one-week gap between them. Networks could gather their thoughts and their equipment.
This time, by comparison:
All of this would be easy if news people decided the conventions don't matter. They leaned that way for a while.
"Conventions ... used to really mean something," said Katie Couric, the CBS anchor. "And they still do, but in many ways there aren't a lot of surprises."
That bottomed out with some overpackaged events.
"In 1996, I walked out of the Republican convention," Ted Koppel said. It was "nothing much more than a picture show and there wasn't any news."
And now? Koppel, formerly of ABC, will do analysis for BBC America. He no longer sees a no-news convention.
"This has been one of the most remarkable political years we've ever seen," he said.
For the first time in more than a half-century, no incumbent president or vice president will be in the race. "Everything is going to change in Washington. ... This is, by far, the most consequential election of my lifetime," said CNN reporter John King.
And Barack Obama will be the first black presidential candidate nominated by a major party. "Clearly, the Democrats have a historic convention coming up," said John Moody, vice president of Fox News.
While the conventions are important this year, that doesn't mean more airtime, though.
"We'll be doing the same amount of coverage on the network that we did four years ago," said Steve Capus, president of NBC News.
That means NBC plans to join coverage on Mondays (keynote speakers), Wednesdays (vice presidential nominees) and Thursdays (presidential nominees). It will skip Tuesdays, letting MSNBC focus on that night.
The other two big networks don't have a cable news channel to lean on. This year, ABC and CBS both plan to include convention coverage on Tuesdays; in 2004, they skipped the night.
Fox turns things over to the Fox News Channel, which leaves PBS with bragging rights.
"Americans who want to see complete, live, gavel-to-gavel prime-time coverage ... have exactly one choice in broadcast television," said Paula Kerger, PBS' CEO.
On cable, they'll have much more. News channels plan to basically be there all day.
They won't stick to the podium, said CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. "We're not going to simply be stenographers."
There is much to do, he said: "All the major leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties (will) be there. ... It's a chance to pick their brains and hopefully do some serious reporting."
