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:: 8.03.2004 ::
For those of you who missed the convention...
At www.c-span.org, you can find transcripts and videos of all the speeches. Thanks to Paul Krugman for the heads-up - and thanks to Ty for forwarding his latest column to me. An excerpt: If you really want to see cable news scripts in action, look at the coverage of the Democratic convention.
Commercial broadcast TV covered only one hour a night. We'll see whether the Republicans get equal treatment. C-Span, on the other hand, provided comprehensive, commentary-free coverage. But many people watched the convention on cable news channels - and what they saw was shaped by a script portraying Democrats as angry Bush-haters who disdain the military.
If that sounds like a script written by the Republicans, it is. As the movie "Outfoxed" makes clear, Fox News is for all practical purposes a G.O.P. propaganda agency. A now-famous poll showed that Fox viewers were more likely than those who get their news elsewhere to believe that evidence of Saddam-Qaeda links has been found, that W.M.D. had been located and that most of the world supported the Iraq war.
CNN used to be different, but Campaign Desk, which is run by The Columbia Journalism Review, concluded after reviewing convention coverage that CNN "has stooped to slavish imitation of Fox's most dubious ploys and policies." Seconds after John Kerry's speech, CNN gave Ed Gillespie, the Republican Party's chairman, the opportunity to bash the candidate. Will Terry McAuliffe be given the same opportunity right after President Bush speaks? To paraphrase what Jon Stewart said on Friday after the Daily Show had covered the convention, exclusively, for a week: watch the conventions, watch the debates; then turn off your TV, and MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.
And please, please, vote in November.
FOLLOWUP:
You can also check out Tom Tomorrow's coverage of the convention on his blog. With pictures!
You can also read about Bob Harris' convention experiences, here. Bob often contributes to Tom Tomorrow's blog, and has his own morning radio show. (Oops! this last is from the LAST convention.)
:: Deb 10:28 AM :: permalink ::
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