CNN Grilled

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:18:58 -0500

Gloria Borger and Donna Brazile are squeezed next to each other on a red faux-leather booth with two younger staffers. Around them, patrons munching on giant burgers and salads in soccer-ball-sized bowls—and downing beers and cocktails and shots of various varieties—glance furtively at their fellow diners, their faces displaying the I'm-gawking-but-trying-to-seem-blase-about-it look that is common on so many faces during...

Honestly, Abe

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:46:46 -0500

Among all the political celebrities milling around the Xcel Center this week, perhaps none has gotten more attention from delegates--or more camera-pan air time from the news networks--than Abraham Lincoln. Well, "Abraham Lincoln," to be precise about it. The full-suited, stovepipe-hat-wearing, strikingly tall Mother of All Media Bait who's been striding around the RNC events this week is,...

"Sarah Palin is your new..."

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:29:10 -0500

"...Rudy Giuliani in a Dress." You know you're on the other side of the looking glass when a Daily Kos diary post and this site inspire the latest in... user-generated headlines? Well, not quite. It's more like a Sarah Palin madlib, which visitors to the site SarahPalinIsYourNewSegway.com...

"Why aren't you clapping? Are you Democrats?"

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:32:34 -0500

Earlier this evening, I met Brian Lambert, a Minneapolis-based media critic who's been blogging the RNC from The Liffey, an Irish Pub adjacent to the Xcel Center. I just checked out the results of his work, The View from the Liffey—a smart and salty insiders' perspective on the bubblicious pageantry that is the St. Paul convention—and thought

Ground Noise

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:28:04 -0500

You know a reporter’s presence in the convention hall is cardinal when proximity to an unprecedented distraction (from—take your pick—delegate, journalist or protester) only serves to sharpen his or her observations about the main affair. Alas, Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin—trying to focus on McCain while protesters rabble-roused nearby—didn’t make the cut tonight: One gets a different sense...

I Want My MTV

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:30:05 -0500

Back in February, the MTV news team spoke with Sarah Palin about her thoughts about the Republican primary contest way back on Super Tuesday. Here's what she said about Ron Paul: “He's cool. He’s a good guy. He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I.’ ” And, Palin on...

That September 11, 2001 Video

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:09:22 -0500

As I mentioned, I watched tonight on PBS, which, when showing the pre-produced rah-rah bio videos was diligent about flagging them with the words “Republican Party Video.” Well, tonight, as the RNC rolled a terrorism montage, the NewsHour inserted the standard font and took it down, as they usually do, partway through the video. But only for a second, as...

What's On Your Head?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:54:55 -0500

What the folks at PBS gain in quality of coverage, they lose in stylish headgear. Poor Judy Woodruff has been roaming the DNC and RNC convention floors in DJ-style headphones with a huge foamy microphone in front of her face, and (I think) a small antenna perched in her hair. Meanwhile, the CNN folks wore much sleeker, more...

The Green Screen Team

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:44:16 -0500

Don't say there weren’t plenty of ambient points tonight for the convention scribes to get harried about tomorrow: -The song blaring over the speakers as the McCains and Palins waved from the stage at the end of the night wasn’t the “Maverick” theme song, but Heart’s “Barracuda,” a rather conspicuously timed ode to Palin’s nickname during her basketball-playing days. ...

Palin Passes on PBS

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:21:46 -0500

The PBS camera crew getting footage on the floor as McCain and Palin worked the crowd following McCain's nomination speech did their best to get the so far interview-shy Sarah Palin to say a few words, holding out the microphone and making their intentions clear. Not a chance. She didn't even make eye-contact with the camera.

The Coloring Wars

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:32:32 -0500

This New Republic entry by Amanda Fortini spends a good amount of time on how starkly (and says the author, refreshingly) the Palin family’s muted clothing choices contrast with those of the McCain clan: If your life is colorful, your clothing need not be… the Palins looked like any American family, clad in nondescript clothing...

Steady goes the NewsHour

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:03:29 -0500

I’m watching the convention coverage as served up by my old colleagues at the NewsHour on PBS, and I swear it’s an alternate universe. No posturing by television stars crowding out the happenings on the floor. It’s not hard to guess where the sympathies of David Brooks and Mark Shields lie, but they chat without hammering talking points. And instead...

Rrr-oww!

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:50:22 -0500

Wow. Ben Smith was right to flag this clip. Do yourself a favor and watch Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan give each other lessons on sexism on MSNBC's St. Paul set earlier today.

"So What's The Daily Show?"

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:11:38 -0500

ST. PAUL — After watching one of those classic "man on the street" segments on The Daily Show, I always come away with the same obvious-but-still-burning question: Are the people being interviewed for these things in on the joke? When they're talking to a DS correspondent, do they know they're about to be mocked on national television? In other...

Talk of the Town Talk

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:47:15 -0500

I couldn't get into the Xcel Center the other night, so I went to Minneapolis's Town Talk Diner, famed for its cheese curds, to see how the convention coverage looked from outside the media bubble. Far, far outside. The Town Talk Diner is on the south side of Minneapolis, close to a Cub Foods, several torta joints,...

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