Briefs
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Not The Only Game in Town
The battle of political ideologies isn't the only game at the Democratic National
Convention. Among the thousands of news media types here is a correspondent for
World Wrestling Entertainment and a crew from ESPN2's Cold Pizza. "Our fans
are the ones the media aren't reaching," says Chris Nowinski, a former professional
wrestling star and Harvard graduate. WWE offers segments of convention coverage
on such shows as Monday Night Raw, along with Nowinski's daily Web column at www.Smackdownyourvote.com.
ESPN2's weekday morning show features political analysis from Lisa Caputo, Hillary
Clinton's former press secretary, and interviews with Kerry supporters from the
Boston Bruins and one of Kerry's windsurfing pals. Other segments cover political
vs. sports trash talk and the transformation of sports arenas into political arenas.
Cold Pizza also traveled to North Carolina to talk to John Edwards' high school
football coaches and teammates. "We are really turning over rocks to find
stories that people don't know about," says Executive Producer Brian Donlon.
Carl Brooks and
Janna Goldstein
Local Cable Channel Beats the
Big Guys
The New England Cable News channel is crowing about its Democratic Convention
coverage. Overnight Nielson ratings that show that NECN, combined with its PBS
partner WGBH, led the cable news audience in the Boston television market in the
9 p.m. to 10 p.m. slot. Each percentage point in the rating is equal to 23,918
viewers. CNN was second with 1.9 percent, Fox followed with 1.4 percent and MSNBC
was fourth at 0.8 percent. The NECN is providing 16 hours of live convention coverage
daily. It teams with WGBH from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Seth Effron
On the Web
Professional journalists are grateful for, if sometimes stung by, The Campaign
Desk (www.campaigndesk.com),
which features critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage, according
to the Web site. The Columbia Journalism Review, published by Columbias
Graduate School of Journalism, launched the site in January to monitor the media.
Campaign Desk gives the bimonthly publication a way to get inside the news
cycle and enrich campaign journalism in real time, the site explains. The
Web site offers a rich array of regularly updated and archived articles in such
departments as Blog Report, Spin Buster and Fact Check. Mondays Spin Buster
challenges a New York Times assertion that Boston Democrats are brimming
with anger at the Bush administration by deconstructing the article and
finding no angry Democrats in sight.
Mark Schlesinger
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