Cable's Political Ploy

Mike Reynolds

Although the Presidential campaign is relatively low on major new stories and headlines - or gaffes - from Texas Governor George Bush and Vice President Al Gore, TV viewers will be inundated with coverage of the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions.

GOP officials and delegates will gather in Philadelphia from July 31-Aug. 3, while the Democrats will bask in the Los Angeles sun from Aug. 14-17.

CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel will be going full throttle with coverage, news and analysis of the final chapter in the presidential campaign. Since MSNBC and FNC both launched in mid-1996, the current campaign marks the first time both networks have been able to follow the full Presidential election cycle.

"There will be interest as there naturally should be. Americans are going to elect their first President of the new millennium," says Sid Bedingfield, VP-CNN/USA. "People are going to watch the personalities and want to hear what the parties have to say. The convention really starts things building toward the general election. Interest will intensify during September and October."

News net execs admit there has been a lull in the public's interest in the campaign to date.

"I think there has been a level of apathy. You have to give the American public credit for discerning what's really news and what's hot air," says Steve Capus, executive producer of MSNBC's The News with Brian Williams and one of the executive producers for the network's convention coverage. "The conventions will be a high point, signaling that it's time to begin focusing on the candidates. Things could get very interesting because you have a Democratic vice president who wants the public to believe the Clinton/Gore administration was responsible for the robust economy. Now there are indicators that the economy is truly slowing down. That could make everyone who is participating in a 401K plan sit up and take notice."

"The primary season essentially ended on March 7 with Super Tuesday. It usually goes a little bit longer into early- or mid-April," notes FNC executive producer Marty Ryan. "There is a natural rhythm to the process. The public wants to find out who the running mates for Governor Bush and Vice President Gore will be and get a sense for the parties' proposals and platforms. There will be a ratings jump; we're not sure how big."

In what has been a slow news year, that is welcome news for the cable nets, particularly CNN, which has sustained significant Nielsen erosion (see sidebar).

However, with the broadcast networks scaling back their convention coverage, cable news channels and their Internet affiliates are in a position to shine.

"Clearly, the broadcast networks are ceding political coverage to cable. That's fine with us," says Bedingfield. "If that means we have added responsibility to be sharper, more accurate and more insightful, we're ready to meet that challenge, step up and take it on."

The following are snapshots of what FNC, MSNBC and CNN plan for their convention and election coverage:

Fox News Channel

Picking up where it left off during the primary season and under the moniker "You Decide 2000," Fox News will tip its coverage live from Philadelphia and Los Angeles each evening at 6 p.m. (ET) via a special report by Brit Hume. FNC senior correspondent Rita Cosby will work at both venues, while general correspondent David Shuster and White House correspondent Brian Wilson will head the lineups in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, respectively. All told, Fox News will allocate more than 300 staffers to its coverage.

Starting at 8 p.m. each night throughout the conventions, FNC will dedicate all its programming to the party conclaves. Hosted by Hume and Fox News' Paula Zahn, coverage will feature Fox News Sunday anchor Tony Snow live from the floor, complemented by commentary and analysis by Fred Barnes and Morton Kondracke, FNC's The Beltway Boys.

FNC also will feature discussions from politi-cal news veterans in-cluding Juan Williams, Mara Liasson, Jeff Birnbaum, Bill Sammon, Michael Barone and Bill Kristol. These political journalists will be joined by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, ex-New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato, past Clinton advisor Dick Morris, and Geraldine Ferraro, former congresswoman from New York and Democratic VP candidate.

Noting the broadcast networks' contractual commitments to post-season baseball coverage, including this year's World Series, plus the start of the primetime season, Ryan says Fox is "still looking into how it will cover the debates."

Its Presidential periscope aside, Ryan says that Fox and FNC will focus on the "key Senate battles, like in New York, and the top gubernatorial and House races. In particular, we want to analyze who will control the House. We will have correspondents at all the key battlegrounds."

Fox's "You Decide 2000" coverage will culminate on election night with Fox Broadcasting taking its first turn at Presidential election-day results. Ryan says the coverage, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET), will be simulcast on FNC, with the broadcast stations breaking away to cover races of local/regional interest. Hume and Zahn will anchor the coast-to-coast coverage and lead Fox's roster of political insiders and journalists. Guests from all parties will join Bill O'Reilly, anchor of FNC's The O'Reilly Factor, while Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes of FNC's Hannity & Colmes will debate the election results and what America can expect from its new executive leader.

MSNBC

In the view of executive producer Capus, the upcoming gatherings of delegates will be "conventions of cable and the Internet. Working in conjunction with NBC News, this is the natural progression to the new platform. Real political junkies will get everything they need from NBC News, MSNBC and MSNBC.com."

The Peacock's various news feathers will combine to air 13 NBC News programs and "Decision 2000" special reports (six on broadcast, seven on cable), with complete-day coverage on MSNBC and a series of Webcasts from the conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In all, the NBC News team will total 500 anchors, correspondents, online journalists, producers, crew, engineers and technicians.

"NBC News, in my humble opinion, has by far the best political team going," says Capus. "We have an all-star team that the other networks can't match and clearly have a leg up on the cable guys in terms of our platforms. With MSNBC and MSNBC. com, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Tim Russert are not limited to snippets on the broadcast network. They can truly showcase their reporting skills and give viewers/users the depth, full flavor and context of their insights." Capus says NBC also will tap and benefit from coverage by Newsweek and Washington Post correspondents.

MSNBC's TV and Internet coverage will begin on the Thursday before the gavels open the respective conventions, with reporting on the platform hearings and conclave-oriented preparations. During the convention itself, MSNBC's schedule calls for a two-hour Morning Line with Chris Jansing from Philadelphia and Greg Jarret from Los Angeles, followed by live convention coverage from noon until 5 p.m. "Decision 2000" special daily reports with Williams and Chris Matthews then run until 6 p.m. and again from 7-8 p.m. In between, MSNBC will present The Mitchell Report with Andrea Mitchell and Equal Time with Ollie North and Paul Begala. Next up: three hours of primetime convention coverage. "Decision 2000" wraps the day from 11-1 p.m.

At www.Decision2000.MSNBC.com, users will find news reports, Webcasts, chats and reader/viewer e-mails, plus news and analysis filed by NBC News, MSNBC, The Washington Post and Newsweek political and polling units. John Seigenthaler will anchor a twice-daily Webcast called Politics Only!, highlighted by floor interviews with key politicos, while John Hockenberry and John Gibson will go live in the evening, pointing viewers/users to key convention moments and links to speaker bios, in-depth analysis and other background information.

As to its election coverage strategies, Capus says the "basic ideas will be the same. We want to showcase the skills of correspondents across our various convergent platforms."

CNN

The network's "Election 2000" coverage also kicks off on the Thursday before each convention with live special editions of Inside Politics at 5 p.m. Bernard Shaw, Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield will lead the coverage, provided by more than 45 anchors, correspondents, online journalists, analysts and talk show hosts as part of a team of nearly 500.

CNN also will cover the Reform Party Convention from Long Beach, Calif., Aug. 10-13.

The network's live primetime convention coverage, hosted by Shaw, Woodruff, Greenfield and Wolf Blitzer, will run from 7-9 p.m. and 10-11 p.m. with Crossfire's Bill Press, Robert Novak and Mary Matalin, and The Capital Gang's Mark Shields, Novak, Margaret Colson, Al Hunt and Kate O'Brien debating the day's events. A post-convention wrap-up follows until midnight. Two special editions of Larry King Live are slated at 9 p.m. and midnight.

Isn't CNN risking having too much coverage?

"Yes, you can have too much if you repeat what you say. That's a waste of resources and viewers' time," says Bedingfield. "But if you really explain the issues, take a hard look at what is different between the platforms, analyze how the parties try to shape the issues to their advantage with insights and a depth of understanding, then we'll be fine."

CNN Interactive's Allpolitics.com will furnish comprehensive streaming video, on-demand video and multimedia features, including interactive quizzes, Web-exclusive political analysis and contributions from CNN anchors and correspondents.

As to the interplay between the TV screen and PC screen, Bedingfield says CNN's mindset is that they are one: "TV and online are working together. Everybody is on TV; everybody is online. The integration of the media will allow for a fuller, richer experience, pushing viewers back and forth. There will be constant cross-promotion telling viewers/users about what information they can get online or on TV. This is the way the media is evolving."

Moving toward the fall and election night, Bedingfield says CNN will air seven Sunday night election specials from Sept. 17-Oct. 29, examining some of the key issues. There also will be hour-length investigative profiles on Bush and Gore.

All things being equal, Bedingfield's criteria for successful convention/election coverage extend beyond the Nielsens. "I'd like to think our coverage will be the best it can be. If we do a great job and the ratings follow, that's fine. If we do a poor job and the numbers are there, we'll be disappointed," he says.