• BRAZIL

Closing Comments on the DNC

2004-07-30

Talking Points
Midnight fireworks, on a scale that dwindled the 4th of July display, were last night's parting thank you to the residents of Boston from this week's Democratic National Convention. Earlier in the evening, it was John Kerry's references to the U.S. Constitution that got the most applause from the multigenerational audience watching the C-SPAN cablecast at John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Idealism, it seemed at Kennedy School, was taking a deep breath.



Blogging Thunder
Maybe it was the blogger's nimble use of technology that made something abundantly clear this week. The big network television approach to reporting on the conventions has become old fashioned and irrelevant. In an era of downsized news departments and Michael Moore's 100 million dollar box office gross, network television has abdicated its electronic convention coverage to local TV affiliates, cable television and funky reports from a new breed of bloggers. These bloggers, from Boston, New York and L.A., found their 15 minutes of fame this week as the old media envied their presence.

It's Television
At U.S. political conventions in the past, there was real drama on the floor. State delegations brought, traded and cast their votes until one candidate had enough to win the nomination. Network television's realtime reporters covered both the suspense and boredom of such a political process. Gavel to gavel.



Today's political conventions are timed, decorated and framed for television. So, why not do as the Democrats and put the award show and Olympics TV producer Don Mischer at the helm? Mischer has a video segment in Being There listed among his credits. In this film, the main character, Chance, is a recluse gardener who becomes an unofficial advisor to the President of the United States. Chance's simple thoughts fit into TV sound bites perfectly and the media hangs on his every word. Chance (Peter Sellers) tells the President,

"Spring, summer, autumn, winter . . . then spring again."