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The Democratic & Republican Conventions and TV

M

mleach

With so much interest in the race to the White House between Obama and McCain do you think the ratings for these two upcoming political conventions will be higher than the previous conventions in the past? I have heard from many who question the choice of the two cities hosting these conventions, Denver ( Democrats ) and The Twin Cities ( Republicans ) and are wondering if those two cities can pull it off without any problems. I guess that alone would attract some viewers.

This brings up another question. I am sure many local TV ( and some radio ) stations will be sending their reporters and anchors to these two cities to cover the conventions. Can a TV /radio station or even a newspaper send their people to one of these conventions but not the other?

A friend of mine works for a religious radio station in Virginia and for a time they were seriously considering sending a member of their staff to cover the Republican convention in St. Paul but not to Denver to cover the Democrats. From what my friend told me the idea wasn't so much because it was a Democratic Convention but rather his station simply didn't want to do business in Denver. They didn't approve of that city's politics such as Denver providing benefits to same-sex partners of their city employees as well as Denver's rather liberal drug laws. However thanks to the economy the idea was dropped. But had they did do as planned wouldn't this violate those "equal time" rules?
 
Conventions tend to be BS-fests with nothing of importance revealed. Assuming we all know which candidates are selected for VP prior to the convention absolutely nothing else of public interest will likely be produced.

Conventions seem to be some sort of reward for the party droids and with virtual 24/7 political coverage by cable services like MSNBC (Democrats) and Fixed Noise (Republicans) anyone interested in the daily goings-on of each candidate can easily get their fill.

In the "good old days" the conventions were events tailored to showcase the candidates and nominees. Today, not so much as they have already been well displayed.
 
TV One is getting into some trouble for covering the Democratic Convention but not the Republican Convention. (The reason they are even covering the Democratic Convention is because Obama is black). Of course, TV One is a cable network, and not under the FCC jurisdiction like broadcast stations and cable service providers.

For broadcast television and radio, I do not know if equal time rules apply for convention coverage because it considered news, which is immune from the rules. ABC, CBS, NBC/MSNBC, and CNN do a good job in equal coverage (Fixed News is another issue). The cable networks have already gone overboard with election coverage (with MSNBC adopting an all Politics/DocBlock format), so I would expect no letup for the conventions.

As for the networks, I suspect all of them will add more coverage of both conventions. If I can recall from 2004, the networks had one night from all of the days. I suspect two hours or even the entire primetime for all four days.

Also, the two conventions are close to each other this year (August 25-29 for the Democrats, September 1-4 for the Republicans). I would expect two weeks of nothing but politics (barring any major breaking news event) from the broadcast and cable networks.
 
I remember 4 years ago, ABC NewsNow covered it on a subchannel. My local ABC decided their SD simulcast of the HD feed was more important and didn't carry NewsNow at all, but we did get a raw feed of the conventions from my CBS station's subchannel. That station is now an affiliate of My Network TV, so I don't expect to see it there either now.

Seems like it'd be a good use for a subchannel, just a raw feed with maybe a bug in the corner or something.

- Trip
 
On the plus side, Presidents have become celebrities, and conventions can become a reality show if produced properly.

I'm hearing stories that the DNC understands this concept and may be offering the TV networks some programming that will be tough to turn down.
 
The conventions have become almost meaningless since the primary process took over from the Party Bosses' smoke-filled rooms, but occasionally a future political star makes his name at one, based on a speech. Barry Goldwater in 1960, Bill Clinton in 1988, and Barak Obama in 2004 come to mind immediately. All were (or will be, in the case of Obama) their party's nominee 4 years later.
 
jal41 said:
TV One is getting into some trouble for covering the Democratic Convention but not the Republican Convention. (The reason they are even covering the Democratic Convention is because Obama is black). Of course, TV One is a cable network, and not under the FCC jurisdiction like broadcast stations and cable service providers.
Click to expand...

Actually, they're not in any 'trouble' at all. TVOne CEO Johnathan Rodgers has explained that his network will be covering Obama's candidacy from its obvious historical implications, but not as a news organization. (He also said if Hillary Clinton ended up as the nominee, there'd have been no live coverage planned at all.) Which is why their explanation for not covering the Republican National Convention looks bad, yet is perfectly reasonable--unless McCain decides to nominate to tap an African-American as his running mate.

At the very least TVOne is upfront about its favoritism.
 
MOVED: TIO: Implications of Obama Nomination

Some posts in this topic have been moved to Take It Outside.

[iurl=http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=105362.0]http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=105362.0[/iurl]
 
The Republican one will be dull. I will turn in to McCain accept because I will probably vote for him (though I wanted Romney or Biden). The Democrats could have some surprises. Funding still isn't complete. Tha tcould impact the production side. Protestors are already lining up and it is said the citizens in Colorado outside of Denver may not take too kindly to a lot of rowdy stuff. Something could erupt. Plus, Hillary hasn't released all her delegates yet. I don't put it past her to try something - at least "request" a floor vote which could stir up some sparring between the camps. Some Hillary supporters could even go further. As for Obama's speech in the stadium - I couldn't care less. I am more interested in seeing him speak extemporaneously now. I want to see if he says "uh uh uh" as much as they are making fun of him for doing when he isn't reading a teleprompter. I think it would be more fun to see Cynthia McKinney accept the Green Party nomination. (They turned Nader down for her?)
 
Nate Wesley said:
jal41 said:
TV One is getting into some trouble for covering the Democratic Convention but not the Republican Convention. (The reason they are even covering the Democratic Convention is because Obama is black). Of course, TV One is a cable network, and not under the FCC jurisdiction like broadcast stations and cable service providers.
Click to expand...

Actually, they're not in any 'trouble' at all. TVOne CEO Johnathan Rodgers has explained that his network will be covering Obama's candidacy from its obvious historical implications, but not as a news organization. (He also said if Hillary Clinton ended up as the nominee, there'd have been no live coverage planned at all.) Which is why their explanation for not covering the Republican National Convention looks bad, yet is perfectly reasonable--unless McCain decides to nominate to tap an African-American as his running mate.

At the very least TVOne is upfront about its favoritism.
Click to expand...

The Republicans have tapped a number of blacks for elected office, and black-owned media blow it off. Th eblack community just isn't a friend of the Republican party. People such as Condi Rice, Lynn Swann, and the Maryland governor candidate are called names such as "uncle Tom" and are blown off while clearly less informed people such as Maxine Waters or John Conyers are presented as saints. (I say less-informed because Ms, Waters has appeared on S-Span in conference meetings showing no knowledge of economics or the budgeting process. Conyers can't even state the protocols for impeachment correctly.
 
tripinva said:
I remember 4 years ago, ABC NewsNow covered it on a subchannel. My local ABC decided their SD simulcast of the HD feed was more important and didn't carry NewsNow at all, but we did get a raw feed of the conventions from my CBS station's subchannel. That station is now an affiliate of My Network TV, so I don't expect to see it there either now.

Seems like it'd be a good use for a subchannel, just a raw feed with maybe a bug in the corner or something.

- Trip
Click to expand...

I'd like to see some news organization (CNN/MSNBC/Fixed Noise) start a channel with nothing but press conferences and other live, raw news as it happens. I brought this idea up to my mom and she compared it to C-SPAN, but for more than just politics.
 
mleach said:
A friend of mine works for a religious radio station in Virginia and for a time they were seriously considering sending a member of their staff to cover the Republican convention in St. Paul but not to Denver to cover the Democrats. [...] However thanks to the economy the idea was dropped.
Click to expand...

"Thanks to the economy"? What did the economy have to do with the station going ahead and covering the DNC, mleach?

ixnay
 
ixnay said:
mleach said:
A friend of mine works for a religious radio station in Virginia and for a time they were seriously considering sending a member of their staff to cover the Republican convention in St. Paul but not to Denver to cover the Democrats. [...] However thanks to the economy the idea was dropped.
Click to expand...

"Thanks to the economy"? What did the economy have to do with the station going ahead and covering the DNC, mleach?

ixnay
Click to expand...

To much money it would have cost to fly to the Twin Cities and also recently they lost a number of clients too.
 
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