http://www.boston.com/news/politics/conven...ntion_coverage/

NBC gives 3 hours to convention coverage

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff | July 9, 2004

Yesterday's announcement by NBC that it would devote three hours of prime-time coverage to both the Democratic and Republican conventions was greeted unenthusiastically by convention officials from both parties.

In becoming the first major commercial broadcast network to reveal its plans, NBC said it would air an hour of coverage -- from 10 to 11 p.m. -- on three of the four nights at each event. In Boston, that includes July 26 when former president Bill Clinton speaks, July 28 when vice presidential candidate John Edwards takes the podium, and July 29 when John Kerry accepts the Democratic presidential nomination. NBC will forego coverage on July 27, the night that Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy is slated to speak.

The network will broadcast from the Republican convention in New York on Aug. 31 when California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks, on Sept. 1 when Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the assemblage, and on Sept. 2 when President Bush makes his acceptance speech.

An NBC spokeswoman said the three hours of planned coverage anchored by Tom Brokaw matches its 2000 total and could be expanded if ''events warrant." But convention organizers were not cheered by the news.

''We're surprised that any network would take a pass on any of the nights of the convention," said Leonardo Alcivar, press secretary for the Republican National Convention. On the night NBC will not broadcast, he added, ''many of the country's inspirational leaders will be featured alongside a stirring tribute to President Reagan."

Peggy Wilhide, communications director for the Democratic National Convention Committee, said NBC's commitment was ''the minimum I expected." She added, however, that ''we live in an environment where people get their news in many different ways from many different sources."

Spokeswomen for ABC and CBS yesterday said those networks were not ready to reveal convention plans. But PBS, the public broadcasting network, has announced that it will air three hours of prime time coverage -- from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. -- on all four nights of each convention.

Given frequent complaints about the lack of real drama at the largely preprogrammed events, broadcast news has gradually been getting out of the convention business. According to DNC statistics, the total amount of ABC, CBS, and NBC coverage at each convention fell from about 20 hours in 1992 to only 11 hours in 2000, while ratings dropped by about one-third in that period. Nielsen numbers indicate that the average viewership of the 2000 Democratic National Convention on both broadcast and cable outlets was 20.6 million each night, while the Republican event attracted 19.2 million viewers each night.

Marvin Kalb, director of the Washington office of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, said the diminishing broadcast network attention ''is an unsurprising though sad acceptance of reality."

Viewers who want more coverage can surf over to the cable news outlets. The prime-time lineup on NBC's cable cousin, MSNBC, will feature ''Hardball with Chris Matthews" from 6 to 8 p.m. from Faneuil Hall. ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann" will air next, followed by another three hours of ''Hardball," and then a ''Convention After Hours" show with Joe Scarborough and Ronald Reagan Jr.

CNN's nightly lineup will include ''Lou Dobbs Tonight" from 6 to 7 p.m., followed by ''Anderson Cooper 360," ''America Votes 2004," ''NewsNight with Aaron Brown," and ''Larry King Live" originating from Boston.

The Fox News Channel's programming -- ''Special Report with Brit Hume," ''Fox Report with Shepard Smith," The O'Reilly Factor," ''Hannity & Colmes," and ''On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" -- will be live from various locations in the city.

On one hand it is understandable since nothing is decided at conventions anymore. Going in everyone knows the nominee, the VP, the platform, etc. They have turned into big 4 night campaign commercials.
On the other hand it's too bad that only those with access to cable will be able to see the entire convention.

Well, golly, James, I mean, you couldn't expect them to pre-empt a rerun of The Swan or American Idol for something as unimportant as a convention, now could you? :rolleyes:

I didn't see anything in this article that specificaly said that Al gore's speech won't be shown by NBC.

I think it's assumed, because they're only having one hour of coverage on three nights. You know they'll be covering Clinton's speech, and they'll cover Edwards' speech (they have to, right?), and they'll cover the crowning climax when Kerry and Edwards are actually given the nomination. So where's there room for Al? I suppose it's possible that Clinton's and Edwards' speeches won't take a full hour each, but they'll probably just fill the air time with convention doings. Gore's speech is not in prime time, as I understand it, and they're covering this live, so I think James's assertion is probably correct.

I know. But the networks no longer see themselves as having to provide a public service as they did in the past.
One thing though. The more coverage they give to the Dem convention means the more they have to give to the GOP convention and I don't think I could take more than 3 hours of that. :mad:

I don't think the time of Gore's speech has been determined yet. The official schedue has yet to be issued. But it sounds like the networks are determining their coverage by who's speech they want to show. Rudy Guliani must be pissed that they're dumping him for Arnold.

I have a simple solution for that. I'm not going to watch any of the Republican convention. For one thing, I'm liable to become ballistic, and living a stone's throw away as I do (well, several stones' throws away), I might be tempted to drive across the Hudson and do something really dumb. So I don't care how many hours of coverage the networks give to the Republican convention, because I ain't watchin'! :tongue:

As for Ahh-nold vs. Rudi, I'd much rather have watched Rudi. At least he did something good during the whole mess with 9/11. I think he handled that as well as a person could have. But Arnold? What's that boob ever done for anyone? Oh, I forgot . . . "I'll be bach." Well, yeah, he contributed that nugget to American culture. Don't matter no how, 'cause like I said, I'm not watching! :clap:

. . . and on a lighter note . . . I don't know how I missed this before:

I have to wonder how anyone with that name ever managed to grow up in one piece to become an adult. Can you imagine what the kids would have done to a person with that name? I feel bad for the guy. Jurkowitz. I think that would be enough to make me legally change my name. I know from first-hand experience what a name can do to you. My last name's Wunderman. First off, let me say that my mother always wanted a little girl named Allison. But thankfully, she had the good sense not to name me Allison Wunderman. Say it out loud if you don't get it. But I got every word known to man attached to that name. The obvious: Wunderwoman, Wunderbread, Wunderperson. The not-so-obvious: Wunderblep, Wunderwear, Wunderdog. Those are some of the kinder ones. Anyway, just my musings for the day. Totally irrelevant. Now let's move on with the topic at hand . . . :blink:

I live in NYC and on September 10th Rudy couldn't get himself elected to pick up the garbage he was so unpopular at that point.
On the morning of 9/11, people on the streets of Manhattan were cursing his name. He made a lot of bad decisions that morning. And had made previous decisions that cost more lives that day. If you ever talk to a firefighter they hate him with a passion and blame him for the substandard equipment there fellow firefighters had that day. It was the media that created the myth of Guliani.

I disagree with you about Guiliani, he was the only one we seen going from street to street and keeping the public infomrd in those terrible moments of 9/11..

Where was Hilary, where was anyone?

-GoreLeadership

Schmer and Hillary Clinton were both in Washington that day. Bill Clinton and Al Gore were both out of the country. The only reason that Guliani was in the streets was because his command center was in 7 World Trade Center and he was forced to evacuate. When he placed it there several years before he was critized for not picking a more secure location. On that day the critics were proved right.
Additionally, Guliani ordered the police to secure a one mile area around the WTC that morning. That meant that people couldn't get into the area but it also meant that people couldn't get out of the area. The Trade Center was a commuting hub for the city and many people traveled through the area to get to work uptown. Guliani's order effectively trapped these people in the area. They couldn't get out.
Then Guliani ordered all high rises evacuated in the city as well as shutting down the subway at the same time. This dumped millions out on to the streets and snarled traffic preventing relief workers from getting down to the WTC faster.
I was there that day and saw in person what most only saw on their TVs. And the people on the street with me were cursing Guliani's name for his mismanagement.
But do I find it interesting that you attack a Dem and defend a Republican.

It must have been terrifying to be a New Yorker that day. I tell you it was terrifying just being an American that day.
Its hard to imagine that many people on the street not being able to get home or contact loved ones.

Working with kids, my last name really gets interesting. My last name is Bidleman with a long i...I've been called Mrs. Vitamin, Bidamin, among others but this takes the cake..Mrs. Bidlebutt! (Ok that kid had attitude! :sport: )

Hey, Mrs. Bidlebutt! I can relate! I got Wunderbutt a lot. And I love Mrs. Vitamin! LOL!

But back to Rudi. It is true that Rudi and his administration were responsible for some of the problems the firefighters had. No doubt about that. But I still think he took a leadership role after the fact. He could've gone and hidden in his office uptown and done his work from there, but he took to the streets, and in a much more meaningful way than Bush standing on the rubble of so many lost souls with his stupid bullhorn, acting like a cheerleader. I got ill watching him do that. It seemed so inappropriate, but everyone loved it. I think Rudi was in there with his shirtsleeves rolled up and trying to keep his city of ruins from totally falling apart. I witnessed it all from the Jersey side of the river, so I wasn't in the thick of it the way you were, James, but my husband lost a close friend and business associate in that inferno that day, and also Todd Beamer (who went down on the plane in PA) lived in my little town. His family still lives here. I run into Lisa Beamer at the supermarket all the time. Her children are in our school. Our post office was renamed the Todd Beamer Memorial Post Office. 9/11 had a big impact on those of us just outside the city, and while I never liked Giuliani before 9/11, I felt some sense of security, perhaps false, having him on the job. And then when they finally started airing Saturday Night Live again and he appeared on that and allowed us to laugh again, I think he did this city and this nation a great service. I don't say he's a great man, but I think he did well after the attacks. And I don't buy that it was all media hype. He did stand at the smoldering hole after 9/11 and turn down a check for $10 million dollars that was offered by one of the Saudi royals. I gave him credit for that.

I was never terrified that day. For an odd reason I was running about 5-10 minutes early. I wound up catching an earlier bus than usual as a result. That bus got to the WTC at 8:40 rather than my usual bus that got there are 8:45. So I was at least a few blocks away when the first plane hit. I remember thinking that if I was destined to be killed I would have been on my usual bus. (FYI One of the first shots in F9/11 of 9/11 has the 28 bus that I would have been on in it.)

For those of you that don't have cable/satellite, I'll remind y'all that you can watch the entire convention at http://www.c-span.org They do a live internet feed on thier three channels for every event. On top of that Cspan is airing the entire convention without stupid commercials and needless commentary.
:clap:

Its not the same as watching it on TV, but its better then nothing.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you here. Guliani was hiding in his command center. But that had to be evacuated because it was in 7 WTC. All the news shots of him walking the streets were because he was headed to the secondary command center which was several blocks away. During all that time he was out of contact with the police, fire and emergency service departments as well as with the state and federal officials. Walking the streets is nice but in a time of crisis he needed to be somewhere where he could do his job and coordinate services.

You're one of the lucky ones then, James, although I don't know how a person ever gets those images out of his head. It's one thing to see it all on TV. It's another to witness it in person.

I don't think an assumption should be reported at this web site as a fact until we know for sure when Al Gore will be speaking. I do think the networks have a responsibility to show the speech of the person that we the people elected President in 2000.