The informercials
"This convention is more of an infomercial than a news event," Ted Koppel pronounced in August of 1996 before the host of ABC's Nightline left the Republican Convention in San Diego after only two days. "Nothing surprising has happened; nothing surprising is anticipated."Twelve years later, little has changed. Much of the network television coverage has shifted to cable, but PBS, MSNBC, FOX News, CNN, and later NBC, CBS, and ABC will all be there to provide the two dominant political parties in America direct access to the American people; in some cases, more than 12 hours of programming will be devoted per convention to the flowery candidate platitudes and unedited video fluff pieces sanctioned and produced by the parties.
Already excluded from the horse race coverage of the nation's commentary class, presidential candidates Ralph Nader (Independent), Cynthia McKinney (Green), and Bob Barr (Libertarian) will go almost entirely MIA on your television this election cycle. They won't be given a chance to plead their case directly to the American people. None will have the chance to deliver "the speech of his/her life." You're likely to see more of Barack Obama's sister on your tube this month than you will these other three individuals, despite the former being a well-known, even iconic, consumer and public advocate, and the latter two having each served more than twice the amount of time as legislators within the halls of Congress than the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Convention narratives for both the Democrats and Republicans will be framed around the candidates' and their advocates' perceived ability to effectively "convey their message to voters," but no commentator will once question the democratic wisdom of the process itself. No individual holding a microphone or speaking into one will bite the corporate hand that feeds the beast. The boat will not be rocked. Evolutionary rejects like Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Reed will be treated by working reporters with a jolting level of respect as guest commentators, met by them with both kid gloves and straight faces. In the end, a revolution in journalism will have amounted to the sum total of NBC having hired Tim Russert's kid.
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Ralph Nader and his supporters are rallying in Denver this week. Nader and vice presidential nominee Matt Gonzalez will be joined on stage by citizen activist Cindy Sheehan, and artists Sean Penn, Val Kilmer, and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. Free Speech TV will be streaming the event online Wednesday at 8pm central. So they've got that going for them.
posted by CM @ 7:38 PM
2 Comments:
You’re right on the conventions. Its too bad they are funded by the taxpayers. Does anyone really take them seriously for anything more than entertainment?
Similarly, nobody should take candidates like Sheehan and Nader seriously. Face it, if they got elected and started to have an impact they wouldn’t last very long if you know what I mean.
You’d be happier if you paid more attention to American Idol and Dancing with the Starts like the rest of the sheeple. Or in my case, break out the APBA boards!
TA
I was hoping Dan Quayle would be on Dancing with the Stars, but he turned them down.
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