Conventional Convention Coverage

By Brian Ulrich -
In an attempt to save money, I've been out of the cable TV news circle for about a year, and so have forgotten how shallow a lot of the coverage can be. Playing meaningless "Gotcha" games about whether Wesley Clark really thinks John Kerry is "the best" possible candidate is one example of this. Very seldom is there actually a clear-cut "best" nominee - everyone generally votes on subjective things that matter most to them. The point of this questioning is not even to look for fissures in the party, as the questioner has to know Clark won't give him one. It's all just the conventional set of things to ask that leads to very little information whatsoever.

This, I think, is why blogs are such a breath of fresh air. Sure, there's plenty of mindless "Gotcha"-type stuff and purely partisan hits from across the political spectrum. But there's also time for a real exchange of ideas and digging for the meat of an issue. And in the 2004 election, this is something I don't think the Bush administration counted on as they erected an array of smoke and mirrors to cover their real record.

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