Dems' Convention, one year ago . . .

Here's what was going on in media-land in the last week of July 2004. Much of the news focused on the Democratic National Convention, held in Boston last July 26-29. (Remember those days, they seem so long ago now . . .). Anyway:

1.)
USA Today reported on the incomplete and frankly crap performance of the networks on convention coverage – and the surprisingly good performance of PBS. (Here’s something where PBS really can say, “If PBS doesn’t do it, who will?”) Here’s why. Says USA Today, It was "well known before the convention started that the three old-line broadcast networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - would air just three hours of the proceedings during prime evening hours" of the convention weeks (and none of it on Tuesday). "The cable news networks promised they would fill the void in coverage." And indeed, the three most-watched cable news networks - CNN, Fox News and MSNBC - did devote "a lot of airtime to reports from inside and outside the FleetCenter.” But “there's been too much talk and commentary from pundits and celebrities, too much promotion of the cable networks' stars and too little coverage of the speeches, delegates and issues before the nation. The only network with "true convention coverage" is PBS, said Tom Rosenstiel, director of Columbia University's Project for Excellence in Journalism. PBS, expanding on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, had three hours of the convention each night and ratings "jumped significantly compared with the 2000 conventions." Especially on the Tuesday night, PBS says, an estimated 7.7 million viewers tuned in to some or all of its coverage. Its rating was up 32% from the second night of the 2000 Democratic convention. PBS says its number of viewers surpassed those watching CNN, Fox News and MSNBC combined. Those cable networks together drew 6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. (From Benton's Communications-related Headlines).

2.)
A Center for Digital Democracy report, coming out at the same time as networks are being slammed for their minimal Convention coverage, notes that “the three major broadcast TV networks are merely spinning lame excuses for why they will not be covering the national political conventions for more than a few hours this summer. It’s all 'tightly scripted,' 'it’s not interesting,' or there’s 'no news,' they suggest. Yet TV broadcasting will largely reap an unprecedented $1 billion or more from political ads sold this election season."

3.)
Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, meanwhile, also had a go at cable’s convention coverage – especially that of Fox News. In Fox-land, noted Kurtz, former Vice President Al Gore's speech was allowed to run for all of 40 seconds before host Bill O'Reilly "broke in with his own commentary." Speeches by Sen Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rev Al Sharpton (D-NY) were also on Fox for just a couple of minutes. "Some Fox executives see their approach as counterprogramming[!], since the speeches are widely available elsewhere. 'You could make a very good case for not being here until Thursday - even for the cable channels,' said Brit Hume, Fox's Washington managing editor. 'If we were inventing this from scratch and there was no history here, no tradition, no custom, we wouldn't design it this way. You wouldn't anchor from here, you just wouldn't. Nobody has quite had the stones to say let's call a halt here.'" (I wish someone at Fox had the stones to fire Brit Hume annd the rest of that group of propagandists.)

4.)
Bad news on the "Rock-the-Vote" front: A Reuters report noted that, "while about half of college-age students are registered to vote, only one in five actually does. (By comparison, three out of five people over the age of 55 vote, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)" In the November election, early indications that the young adult vote had increased substantially proved to be mostly illusory.

5.)
DBS Satellite versus cable news (i.e., not about the election): Communications Daily quotes media statistics showing that between 1995 to 2004, cable's 91% share of the pay TV market had shrunk to 73%. As a result, "the cable industry would like the FCC to acknowledge that that means there is "vigorous rivalry" between cable and DBS. A declaration by the FCC that the market is highly competitive could have an impact on how cable is regulated."