a good blog is almost like a strong piece of research with footnotes. And in some ways it's more legitimate than a newspaper because it explains where its information is coming from.'"
Skip all the sites listed. Most are awful, as was the Canadian blogger. Frankly, few bloggers covered the convention any better than old media, but that says more about old media than bloggers. The truth about conventions.
This kind of newbie curiosity is especially important given the stage-managed political ritual that political conventions have become, events that boast all the spontaneity of a Japanese tea ceremony.
There might be a bigger lesson here. Conventions have been like this for years without the media acknowledging that staleness. When the elite media covered the events they did so to focus the voter toward one of the world's most expensive infomercials to be immediately followed by -- some of the, ahem, world's most expensive advertising - t.v. campaign ads. What is noticeably missing every year are the issues. Howard Rosenberg, LA Times media critic: "The media doesn't tell you what to think, but what to think about." This year as in most, it was what they didn't want you to think about.
With cable networks following the event and a less-than-wonderful candidate and with bloggers to register reaction and empty reality, the convention was inconvenient for the elite media to cover. There has been no suspense at conventions for years, no issues either, and, suddenly, Dan Rather was bored and hoping his audience would take the cue. Nothing here, folks. There wasn't. Bloggers confirmed it. Score one for a reality check.
Time for Americans to reclaim the conventions and insist on some meaningful debate to substitute for the party rally that isn't even fun for the party faithful anymore.
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