ThiNGs weren't supposed to work this way. Last week's Democratic convention in Denver came off as a tightly scripted affair; all the drama resided in how the thing was covered on TV. It was the ultimate meta-event!
Take, for example, the Matthews Meltdown. Discussing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech on Tuesday, MSNBC host Chris Matthews lost it after colleague Keith Olbermann seemed to mock him with a hand gesture that suggested Matthews was talking too much. Hair askew, looking as if he had spent the night on a bench in a bus station, Matthews shed TV's normal protocol and retorted: "I can do the same to you!" and defended his Hillary spiel: "That's what I thought, all right? And I said it."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, September 09, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 33 words Type of Material: Correction
Convention coverage: The Channel Island column in the Sept. 1 Calendar section about coverage of the political conventions said that the Republican National Convention was in Minneapolis. It was in St. Paul, Minn.
The hot-tempered "Hardball" host has always had trouble with this "TV is a cool medium" concept, but let's not single him out. The rhetorical cannons last week were blazing all over MSNBC. Olbermann, cable’s liberal lion, interrupted host Joe Scarborough when he was talking up John McCain's poll numbers ("Why don't you get a shovel?"); the next morning, Scarborough seemed to take out his frustration with a blistering tirade against colleague David Shuster. An anonymous source ominously told Politico.com, "The situation at our channel is about to blow up."
There are likely more fireworks in store this week during the GOP gathering in Minneapolis, especially with critics, including some Democrats, painting MSNBC as the house organ of the Barack Obama campaign. But they may not get much chance to go at it. Hurricane Gustav, which was expected to slam the Gulf Coast this morning, has already disrupted the convention. In a news conference Sunday, convention officials announced they would reduce today's opening activities to the bare essentials and would then reevaluate the situation.
Still, the conventions are giving the cable-news folk cause for celebration, not recriminations, given the ratings.
A record total of 38.3 million viewers watched Obama's acceptance speech Thursday, according to Nielsen Media Research. An average of 8 million watched on CNN alone, easily besting the broadcast competition on ABC, CBS and NBC. Of course, nobody on the Republican side approaches the media star power of Obama; McCain himself takes potshots at his own speaking skills. But last week, the three news cable networks each posted average prime-time gains of more than 50% compared with the '04 convention; those gains are unlikely to fade away entirely in Minnesota.
