I watched the DNC last night. As it turns out, Al-Jazeera is giving it more coverage than ABC, NBC, or CBS. A reflection of American interest levels, to be sure, but also, I think, a reaction to how the coverage works.
I started off watching on CNN. Frankly, I was loathing the process. It was mostly their talking heads in a little echo chamber, self congratulatory, circle jerk, adding no content, and obscuring the actual process. I also found out that the major broadcast media outlets are giving it little coverage. They talked about bloggers covering the convention, and mentioned only conservative, republican, pro-war Andrew Sullivan by name, as opposed to the many other bloggers they could have mentioned. They did a bio piece on Clinton, and spent 15 seconds saying that he had done great things for the economy and international relations, then spent 5 minutes talking about lewinsky and impeachment, ending with the question “what more could he have done to prevent 9/11?”. You mean other than telling GWB to make Al Qaeda a top priority? Gee, dunno. While we’re on the topic, I wonder if anyone would like to consider who gave Osama Bin Laden his start in the first place. As well as assisting Hussein. Gotta wonder what Allawi‘s going to be doing in 10, 20 years. But don’t worry, we can always invade again.
I was chatting with at the time, and sharing my observations about the CNN coverage, and how I wished someone would have made a webcast. Then I figured out it probably _was_ webcasting. Google proved me right. Watching the webcast was a totally different experience. This was not filtered through a major media corporation. It was the DNC’s own perspective. And I began to realize the value of the Convention. It’s an opportunity for the democratic party to put its beliefs out there. It was good to hear people who share at least some of my political views talking eloquently and persuasively about them. I would go so far as to say it was inspirational, even with all the differences of view. If only we shared a greater quantity of perspective.
I tried to advocate the sharing of this perspective on gay.com. Apathy and/or hostility characterized about half the responses, though I did get a few people who were already watching it, and one who asked me for the website address. One of the guys told me that it didn’t matter. The government doesn’t make a difference, and has nothing to do with whether or not there are jobs (among other topics). I flamed him. I pointed out several different ways the goverment could affect such matters, and in fact, actively was affecting such matters. He blew me off and said thinking was a waste of time. I sadly believe his attitude represents an all too common perspective. It’s a pity that so few will be seeing it through anything other than a heavy filter. The DNC brought to you by CNN (and other similar media outlets) results in apathy and hostility to politics.