Conventions, Then, Now, and When

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Today’s blog comes to you from the airspace between Seattle and San Diego. We should be back in time to hear Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech. The media’s distraction with McCain’s unusual choice should slow down in the days ahead, as the novelty wears off concerning a relative unknown running for vice president, with a special needs infant son, and an unmarried pregnant teenage daughter. The media’s interest in Gov. Palin's family is appropriate but requires respectful restraint. However, if it becomes an excuse to avoid the real issues—and differences between the candidates and how they will govern—the media will have earned a failing grade.

Having watched most of the DNC and bits and pieces, so far, of the RNC, I have to wonder what coverage of the political conventions will look like, four years from now. As mentioned last week, after a very short time watching cable news coverage, I switched to C-Span. Others I know watched streaming web feeds. Almost everybody I know, who has an interest in politics or the media, has been critical of the coverage. Is the coverage really that bad? I’m afraid the answer is a qualified yes. With the limitations on time, and the focus on headline speeches, there is really no sense of being there and sharing in the ambience of the event. Instead we get a highly produced speech or two, and the predictable commentary about what it means. As mentioned previously, the local coverage I’ve seen has added real value for the viewer. Capturing the sense of our own community’s place in the national story gives perspective to the bigger picture.

I attended both the Republican and Democratic conventions in 1976, and a few more since then. The energy and excitement of being at a political convention is real and exhilarating. Certainly we should report critically and responsibly on the politics and issues. That’s not in question. But we should also capture the environment and ambiance of being in the big hall, or in Obama’s case the football stadium, during the major moments of these uniquely American quadrennial celebrations. I will never forget standing next to a fellow journalist, a reporter from Australia, during Jimmy Carter’s acceptance speech at Madison Square Garden in 1976. He turned to me and said, “we don’t have anything like this where I come from. This is fantastic”.

Watching C-Span last Thursday, with the Sheryl Crow performance building to a number of preliminary speeches and then Barack Obama’s acceptance, I got a sense of the special character of the American political convention. My hope is that as we report on future conventions, four years from now, and beyond, we continue the tradition of conveying the celebratory along with the politically significant.