Convention Season

The Republicans are set to hold their convention in Tampa, Florida one week from today, and the Democrats will follow with their convention in Charlotte, NC September 4-6. The conventional wisdom (or the wisdom from the media) is the conventions don’t matter and are a waste of time.  You may think there is some merit given that the Democrats have trimmed a day off their convention this go round (conventions are traditionally four day affairs).

It is a shame that the media have abandoned the conventions. Back in 1952, when TV first covered the conventions, the networks devoted 60 hours covering both parties gavel to gavel. In the last iteration in 2008, the networks spent less than 3 hours total on the conventions.  Cable news did a little better, but most of its coverage had the convention serving as a backdrop to the various pundit shows popular on cable news.

The lack of media coverage stems from two different forces: the need to sell advertising to appease corporate shareholders AND decisions by party leadership to make sure nothing newsworthy happens that isn’t part of a script. It is a shame since the American public still love conventions. C-SPAN still covers the conventions gavel to gavel, and notices a bump in viewership each convention summer. In fact, PBS, which reduced its coverage of previous conventions, has decided to go back to gavel to gavel coverage.

The Washington Post recently published “Five Myths about Political Conventions“, which is an instructive read to those who have a general interest in political conventions.