By John T. Harding
The quadrennial marketing of presidential candidates got a comeuppance this year as the major broadcast TV networks opted out of gavel-to-gavel coverage, thus depriving the partygoers of free advertising for their campaigns.
The politico-marketers howled when the networks cut coverage to just one hour for each of three nights. GOPlanners howled loudly because they had planned a four-night marketplace. Their outcry was drowned out, however, by even louder howling in the wind and rain of Hurricane Isaac as it roared past Tampa on its way to New Orleans.
The GOProtesters may have been mollified a bit by NBC's decision to carry a football game instead of an hour of Democratic convention frivolatry (read: frivolous idolatry).
For all the howling, however, it's not like viewers were bereft -- sports fans had their football fix, while those who wanted convention coverage could choose one of the other two broadcast networks -- ABC or CBS -- or CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, PBS or CSPAN for even more coverage time and analysis.
As for why NBC chose the NFL over convention coverage, try this reason: Money. An hour's worth of game time, with commercials, is infinitely more profitable than an hour's worth of speechifying with no commercial breaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment