And Joan Rivers does the RNC red carpet
: Jay Rosen wonders whether convention coverage could (not necessarily should) change radically next time around so that a party sells exclusive rights to cover its show to one network, as happens with the Oscars and the Super Bowl.
Blogger Rex Hammock (the guy who blogged meeting Bush a few months ago) attended the convention and saw them trying to turn it into the Oscars.
Well, it’s not exactly as if the convention is half as entertaining as even the dullest Oscars (and it’s even longer). And there is that matter of the public’s right to know and all that. But don’t get caught up in the details. We’re talking TV. We’re talking high concept.
If you want a network to give the convention more than an hour of coverage, then don’t give it to everyone; don’t turn it into a dull commodity.
In a audio interview with Chris Lydon, Rosen said the relationship of TV to conventions is one of unrequited love. The conventions tried to make TV love them. They turned the stages into sets, they put stars on stage, they produced soundbites. Didn’t work.
But now we see that FoxNews beat all the big boys with its coverage of the RNC. It’d be even bigger if it were exclusive; they’d put more resources and coverage and promotion into it; more people would watch. What’s not to love?
Tom Biro doesn’t love the idea because there’d be even less balance. OK. But this assumes that there is balance and that the networks do more than pontificate. Maybe if they actually reported and fact-checked the speeches and found news, that’d be worthwhile. But they don’t. And anyway, there is no news at conventions.
The conventions are just commercials anyway, so maybe we should just admit it and turn them into infomercials.
