WITH THE MEDIA IN BOSTON

DEPOLITICIZING POLITICS

EJECTED BY THE RENDON GROUP

CNN’s Jeff Greenfield was telling me about the new earpieces that CNN and the networks are using to enable them to broadcast from the convention floor. They screen out all the noise and screaming. “We tested it the other night during a rock concert and it worked beautifully,” he said with a certain amount of satisfaction. We were inside the Fleet Center as he and an army of media colleagues waited for the 44th Democratic Party convention to get underway in this modernized, corporatized temple of the Celtics.

I had been wandering the congested halls of this mammoth building in which escalators make you feel like you are in that John Malcovich movie because they zip from 2 to 7 when you want to go to three. It’s hard for a lone ranger like myself to try to figure out what to cover and how to cover a circus in which every major media outlet has already “flooded the zone” with teams of reporters, crews, and platoons of interns. Our Globalvision office had once again become a water cooler under a ladder in a congested back corridor as it had been back at the 1996 convention in New York.

It was good to see Jeff because he had been my closest pal a lifetime ago when we watched our first convention together in the summer community our parents took us to. The year was — oh, my god, can it be true? — l952 when we were both ten and awestruck with the very idea of watching a convention live.

There was only one TV in that summer colony and the two of us had, he reminded me, broken into an empty house to gawk at the screen and watch the nomination of liberal Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson whose voice was replayed in Boston last night.

DEBATING THE COVERAGE

I commented to Vanity Fair’s media writer Michael Wolff who, like me, was wandering the halls in search of a story that might be distinctive that it was that child hood experience that turned me on to politics and that made me lament the fact that this year’s convention would be barely covered, by the networks and others won’t get a chance to get “hooked” as I did into politics and its machinations.

At that point Greenfield quipped that back then there was real debate at that convention and the outcome was in doubt. In contrast, this year’s event is more of a packaged and well scripted made for TV show with the goal of selling the candidate. It is a Kerry Fest, and as such, in the eyes of many of the jaded and cynical reporters here unworthy of politics. To them, the real story, the only story, is the face off with Bush, the horserace to come. They have no time for or use for the process of politics and the many players that define the way the game is played.

In short, our media is depoliticizing politics and insuring that it is an entertainment. And they are doing it for reasons of GREED argues Jeff Chester:

http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/netcoverage.html

Already, most candidates spend most of their time raising money to get on TV, Now the big networks — which had no compunctions devoting a week to Reagan worship, are all of a sudden moralistic about how this convention is not news as if they resent the idea of candidates getting free airtime. This represents a corruption of values within the larger corruption of politics.

The Democrats are no better. They have pre-sanitized the event, and squeezed any debate or controversy out of it. They have cooperated with the marginalization of debate and have insured that the war, THE ISSUE dividing Americans and America from the world, is barely mentioned, “STRENGTH is their watchword as if they plan to out macho Bush and challenge the school yard bully with a tougher guy. They have turned Kerry into an unlikely caricature. The anti-war activist is now the war hero proud of serving America in a war he once eloquently denounced. The liberal policy wonk is now the middle of the road say nothing candidate. The Bush bashing that arouses and motivates the base has been banned from the arena.

SELLING THE FUTURE

We are here for the selling of the future, not the denouncing of the present or the condemning of the past. Like Jon Landau wrote of Bruce back in the day, “I have seen the future of rock and roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen” so politician after politician smoke of the future of America as embodied in John Kerry. He was spoken of in terms that the Soviet aparatchicks reserved for Stalin and Breshnev. Meanwhile as my partner Rory observed (check out his just-launched blog, “Media is a Plural”, at RoryOConnor.org), the memory of the Duke of Mass Politics Michael Dukakis has been purged from the history books because this convention is about winners, not losers. (Dukakis was around however)

And speaking of the Boss, The Phoenix’s Dan Kennedy reaches back for a Springsteen comparison: “For all of Bill Clinton’s prancing and preening last night about his own eight years in the White House, what really made his speech extraordinary were the touches of self-deprecation. Listening to him talk of his new-found wealth, he sounded for all the world like Bruce Springsteen singing about being “a rich man in a poor man’s shirt.” And he used it to great effect in criticizing the disastrous economic policies of George W. Bush:”

At the same time, this is important political theater at a time when the stakes are high, Most in the Fleet Center are trying their best to stay positive. Last night when an announcer asked the delegates to look at a digital camera that had been set up near a FOX TV booth, they jeered and booed at the mention of Fox. That was an exception to an evening that was laced with Al Gore’s attempts at humor, Jimmy Carter’s humility and the Clinton’s talking about the choices we are facing.

THE CLASS STRATIFICATION

The Fleet Center is also housing a media convention. Up on 7, big media has taken over the corporate suites and sky boxes with anchors galore and gaggles of invited guests feasting on the catering, you can barely get through the halls as security guards defend the inner sanctums from the riff raff. Occasionally, you could spot a familiar face but mostly you had crowds that seemed as lost as I was. I ran into a member of the Kennedy Clan who was looking for the family boxes. She found one but not the other. I was looking for Al Jazeera and New England Cable News. No luck.

Down below on three, the networks had their real work spaces with equipment flying in and out of packed rooms. All praises are due to NBC for a quick bite and bottle of water. One flight down were the radio talk show hosts and broadcasters like Amy Goodman and Pacifica. To the side, their were the bloggers and I had the good fortune of saying hello to the Wonkette lady who is all the buzz as the main provider of dish.

The big newspapers had their own pavilions in which they had established newsrooms. The Times and the Globe were side by side, both TIMES properties, Nevertheless, they are fierce competitors with Globe Editor Marty Barron insisting that his newspaper “own the story, ” I don’t want to read anything about Kerry anywhere else that we have not already run, ” he was reported to have read, The Globe coverage has been so in?depth that it has pissed off the Kerry camp which had been hoping for a break from the hometown paper. The Globe like many other outlets are doing more detailed and better Web editions as well as their normal output.

When you walk into the GLOBE room, you notice a pile of boxes with strange marking made in Korea. They are Hazmat masks — just in case. Many media outlets have come equipped for war. So far, all’s quiet on the streets.

THE RIGHT TO VOTE

The issue oriented panels, conferences and debates are not getting the kind of coverage you would hope for. I spent the afternoon at a series of panels on Voting and Democracy. What was clear was that the right to vote is NOT guaranteed in our society and that the Democratic Party has not made it a priority to insure that all votes count and are counted despite the rhetoric from Party Bigs from the podium.

Jesse Jackson, who has done more to register new voters than anyone was there to say that another Florida can happen. His son, the Congressman Jesse Jr was brilliant in explaining the need for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote. Dennis Kucinich dropped by to second the emotion. Scholars confirmed the problem while journalists like Greg Palast of the BBC reported on his continuing reports on disenfranchisement.

But the press wasn’t there. No networks. No C-SPAN. Arguably the most important issue challenging our democracy was not reported on in any detail.

MEMORIES OF MRS. HAMER

Who was there was Billie Joe Young, a poet and actress who did a rendition of civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer’s moving speech to the l964 Democratic convention cataloguing the abuses she suffered to get the right to vote in Mississippi. “Is this America?” Ms Hamer asked then as a representative of the Mississippi Freedom Democractic Party which was not seated at that convention by party elders who offered them a compromise 2 seats while the segregated delegation was seated.

I was in Atlantic City as a civil rights worked and saw Mrs. Hamer give that heroic speech. (Lyndon Johnson scheduled a press conference while she spoke to try to prevent her passionate address from being seen live. ) That memory will always be with me, and, alas, it was that rejection back in l964 that set the stage for the black/white/left-right rupture that came in l968 in Chicago and the eventual triumph of Nixon and the continuation of the war. We who fought for civil rights may have been right but we left a terrible legacy.

That political divide has still not been healed.

OLE MISS IN THE HOUSE

And yet when I finally got on the floor of the Fleet, I walked by the Mississippi delegation and there, in row after row , were black faces, a clear sign of Mrs. Hamer’s ultimate triumph,

Fannie Lou Hamer was my hero then and my hero still as I walked from delegation to delegation and watched the opening night of the throw down that is coming. We are in the first quarter of a new game. The big D Democrats are trying to run outrun and out score the other side which is not on the floor yet. Small d democrats are disgusted by the spectacle but have nowhere to go.

Images, not issues, are in command. Celebrity politicians like Hillary Clinton are being referred to as “stars” of the Democratic Party.

After the convention, we tried to crash the Time Warner part on the rooftop of the Ritz Carleton, a great symbolic setting for elite media. This media conglomerate was paying tribute to Kerry’s campaign manager. We were rebuffed by flacks wearing badges from the Rendon Group.

The Rendon Group? Mmmmm That’s the PR firm that advised the Pentagon and the Iraqi National Congress before and during the war. They are a shadowy group. Their svengali John Rendon appears in my film WMD. I doubt I am on their radar yet, but here we are at the Democractic convention and the Rendon Group is providing events management for Time Warner as it hosts Bill Clinton and other party bigs at the swankiest hotel in town. No wonder the war is not a priority!

It’s show time in Boston. Which side am I on?

EVENT NOTE

My film WMD screens in Boston at Simmons College at 2PM. as part of the Political Film Festival alonside the convention.The Boston Globe features the listing in its convention coverage.

Writes The Globe:

“FUEL FOR THE FIRE When Go! was a tadpole, we were absolutely addicted to the ‘ABC After School Special.’ Every month, our humdrum existence was spiced up with tales of teenage drug use, premarital sex, drinking, and prostitution. Little did we realize that these specials would eventually come in handy for dealing with randy Democrats at this week’s convention. But our point is that even though we were aware these overwrought distortions were the equivalent of Velveeta, we couldn’t stop watching. Likewise, filmmaker Danny Schechter claims that the networks are distorting news into ‘mili-tainment.’ Yes, we realize it’s a stretch from the ‘ABC After School Special’ to MSNBC, but just play along. Schechter is at Simmons College this afternoon at 2:30 to screen his documentary ‘WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception.’ The film, part of the Avenue of the Arts Film Festival, is free. 300 The Fenway (MBTA Green Line E train outbound to the museum stop), 617-521-2000.”

STORMS OM THE HORIZON

The sun is out this morning but there is a storm coming in from the North and West. A political storm is already building. I am trying to cover it.

YOUR LETTERS

Scott Kohlhaas writes: “If you write a story on the draft, would you be willing to mention www.draftresistance.org? When it comes to the draft, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”

Michael Burton writes from the Virgin Islands on the influence of comedy and the Daily Show on politics:

“I don’t know if you saw any of CNN’s coverage of the DNC yesterday and today, but they now have a roving “sidekick” comic reporter to Larry King named Mo Rocha, who gives humorous remarks while sipping glasses of wine in the convention. I think this is a direct result and influence from the success of John Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”! News has now gone to humor to get viewers!

With all the serious issues facing the nation ? from the war in Iraq to the destruction of our Constitution with the Patriot Act - what is the biggest topic discussed on CNN during the opening night of the convention? Teresa Heinz-Kerry’s remark to an overly-persistent reporter to “shove it”! It’s bad enough the network showed the remark out of context (the “reporter,” a writer for a right-wing reactionary publication, misquoted Mrs. Kerry and then doggedly was in her face, asking the same question that she answered at least three times (”I did not say that”) until she told him bluntly to “shove it..” Now the media is treating this as the biggest flap of the week, as if the woman cussed the reporter out. What has happened to responsible television news coverage of a political race? It doesn’t exist.”

---

Jamie MacKay from Whistler BC writing again. I do not know how you keepup your insane schedule, but thanks for providing so much inspiration andclarity on our world events. It is so much needed…..I am a baseball fan, and I do a lot of work from home onmy computer usually with a game on in the background. (It sounds like a muchbetter gig than it is!) I started noticing last week as I alternated betweengames broadcast on Canadian channels and US channels WSBK, FOX West and WGNthat the US channels did not contain one trailer for Fahrenheit 9/11, andthe Canadian channels ran 3 or 4 per game!

Oh well, I guess GWB can always “Blame Canada!!!”

I am trying to handle all your mail. Keep your comments coming to dissector@mediachannel.org