News judgment

News judgment

: Amazing that WNBC in New York did not run Rudy’s speech last night. This is New York. This is Rudy. And he was great. The ABC affil had football but the CBS and Fox stations had Rudy.

Sorry to say that I wasn’t wowed by McCain.

And otherwise, even Fox wasn’t showing much because, well, conventions are boring and newsless.

: I do wish Rudy would get back on the public stage. He could be the man to fix the FBI; I’ve been pushing for that since the day he left office. He could make a helluva head of Homeland Security, though that’s an even more thankless job.

: UPDATE: Rex Hammock puts it well on McCain: “John McCain is to Republicans what Bill Bradley is to Democrats. Bigger than life. Genuine greatness. But totally lacking the whole speech-making thing.”

9 responses to “News judgment”

  1. notthisgirl Avatar
    notthisgirl

    Good morning Jeff. I do find that surprising – especially WNBC. I don’t watch other local stations beside them.
    Did you, by any chance, see the opening to Monday Night Football ?!?!? Well if you didn’t, Howard Dean did a parody of his Deaniac speech – gated toward football however. BUT, toward the end, he bellows “Are you ready for four more years?” The crowd boos; he continues: “Are you ready for some football“. And of course the crowd cheers.
    So I guess we know where the sports producers of ABC stand. IMO, this seemed oddly out of place … and I have no stomach for combining politics with a sports broadcast.
    Both my husband and I looked at each other simultaneously during Rudi’s speech last night – and eagerly said “Rudi in 08!”
    I do hope he runs for something again – I wish it would be for a US Senate seat in NJ; but, I hope he does run for Prez in 08.

  2. notthisgirl Avatar
    notthisgirl

    Good morning Jeff. I do find that surprising – especially WNBC. I don’t watch other local stations beside them.
    Did you, by any chance, see the opening to Monday Night Football ?!?!? Well if you didn’t, Howard Dean did a parody of his Deaniac speech – gated toward football however. BUT, toward the end, he bellows “Are you ready for four more years?” The crowd boos; he continues: “Are you ready for some football“. And of course the crowd cheers.
    So I guess we know where the sports producers of ABC stand. IMO, this seemed oddly out of place … and I have no stomach for combining politics with a sports broadcast.
    Both my husband and I looked at each other simultaneously during Rudi’s speech last night – and eagerly said “Rudi in 08!”
    I do hope he runs for something again – I wish it would be for a US Senate seat in NJ; but, I hope he does run for Prez in 08.

  3. John Avatar

    I doubt WNBC made their choice on what they would and wouldn’t cover Monday night without some sort of input from the higher-ups at the network. I’d assume someone a NBC thought that counterprograming against MNF on WABC and the convention on WCBS and WNYW was some sort of strategic plan to lure away viewers and boost the overall network ratings for the night (though I suppose there’s always the possibility David Dinkins has been named WNBC’s general manager without anyone knowing about it).

  4. Dave Justus Avatar

    I liked both McCain and Giuliani’s speeches last night. I was surprised at how agressive the Republican Convention has started out being. It seems to be a full on defense (or maybe celebration is a better word) of the policies and strength of George Bush. Not even a shadow of doubt. I think that will project strength to the electorate while the Democratic Convention seemed to be timid and afraid of itself. They tried to do strong on defense, but I think I they accomplished was being weak on Democrats.
    I have blogged more on Giuliani’s speech here and McCain’s speech here.

  5. Jake Avatar

    I don’t think McCain’s speech was bad, and I don’t think it was supposed to be insanely good. You want him in your camp as a Rep, but not to be the “attention getter”…that’s the President’s job. I was very impressed that he made the point about us being on the brink of war and something more terrible, in that Saddam had been committing acts of war for years (shooting at our planes).
    Rudy was OK. I felt it was a little TOO casual.

  6. freddie poo Avatar
    freddie poo

    Stay calm and unsurprised: no one remembers these kinds of speeches. They are given because both Joh and Rudy want to be next GOP candidate…Rudy can not be (divorced, shabby moral life in public eye; disliked by Baptist Right)..but everyone gets hopes up and reality flies out the door.

  7. Mithras Avatar

    conventions are boring and newsless.
    Well done, Jarvis. Not before time, either. But saying you didn’t particularly like McCain isn’t enough. You have to find someone at the GOP convention to at least pretend to criticize: I suggest Schwarzenegger. Nobody really likes him. You can make fun of his accent, come up with a catchy name to ridicule him with. Say he’s not serious. Then you’ll have the room to go all weak-kneed when Bush appears.
    Remember, your brand position is New Media and Political Independent. You’re in danger of looking like a war party shill.

  8. Puce Avatar

    MITHAS EXPOS JARVI HAPICRASY

  9. Yehudit Avatar

    I think Rudy’s speech was valuable in reminding the right wing of the Repub party that liberal Repubs are good human beings and valuable players and worth including. ‘Cause they tend to forget.