The Summer Games in Beijing have drawn to a close, but another sort of Olympics is just beginning for the cable news networks.Over the next two weeks, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, Fox Business News and their ilk will go wall-to- wall covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver from Aug. 25-28 and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis from Sept. 1-4.While the political conventions have become more spectacle and less strategy, this year they are more important than ever. In Denver, the world will hear from presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama‘s running mate for the first time in this capacity on Wednesday night, Aug. 27.
Women play a prominent role in this election, and on Monday, Aug. 26, Obama’s forthright wife, Michelle, will tell the world why her husband should be president. On Tuesday night, Aug. 26, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who herself nearly was the nominee, will speak on the 88th anniversary of the day women achieved the right to vote.
“The theme of that day is women and unity. Our job is to figure out if that’s working or not,” says David Bohrman, CNN’s Washington Bureau Chief and executive producer of convention coverage. “Will Senator Clinton’s supporters help unify the party or will this be a day that exacerbates the wedge that was driven through the party during the primaries?”
On Thursday, Aug. 27, Obama will be the first African-American to accept his party’s nomination in a historic speech from Denver’s Invesco Stadium in front of nearly 80,000 people. The day is significant on another level – it’s the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s also the first time a nominee has made his acceptance speech in a stadium since John F. Kennedy, then 43, told Americans from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that they stood on the edge of a new frontier.
“That will be an image for the history books,” says Bohrman.
CNN will be the only news network to anchor its coverage – using a familiar set of hosts, correspondents and analysts that include Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer – entirely from the convention floor. “It will feel so much more like you are there,” says Bohrman.
Fox News, which includes Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox News Radio, FoxNews.com and Fox News Mobile, will host the convention 24/7 from The Fox Experience, housed at Braun’s Bar & Grill across the street from Denver’s Pepsi Center.
Like the other broadcast networks – ABC and CBS – NBC will dedicate its nightly half-hour newscast and one hour of prime-time coverage at 10 p.m. each night to covering the conventions. Political junkies can follow NBC’s minute-my-minute coverage of convention happenings on MSNBC, where the networks’ prominent players – Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, Nora O’Donnell, Chuck Todd and then Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews in primetime – will assist in hosting 20 hours of coverage each day.
In addition, “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams and “Today Show” anchors Matt Lauer and Ann Curry will practically jet straight from Beijing to Denver to cover the DNC. And Luke Russert, son of NBC’s recently deceased Washington Bureau Chief Tim, will cover youth issues.
“This is going to be an exciting two weeks,” says Phil Alongi, NBC News executive producer. “We’ve never had the political conventions this late in the campaign and back to back like this.”
At CBS, Katie Couric will be front and center, anchoring the “CBS Evening News” and the 10 p.m. hour with able assists from Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer and Senior Political Correspondent Jeff Greenfield.Couric also will anchor live, Web-exclusive specials on CBSNews.com and CNET.com each night.
ABC’s coverage will be led by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. All three of ABC’s daily news shows – “Good Morning America,” “World News” and “Nightline” – will originate from Denver, with additional gavel-to-gavel coverage on ABC News Radio, digital network ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.
Political conventions may have gotten rote in recent years, but this time around, news producers are energized. Says Bohrman: “If you do what we do, this is the election you want to cover.”