THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: 77 lines
WHILE FORMER presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush were addressing Republican delegates on The Family Channel the other night, ABC's Peter Jennings reported on a gay rights demonstration outside the convention hall in San Diego.
And while The Family Channel audience saw an uplifting film about the Ronald Reagan presidency, Dan Rather in the CBS anchor booth was chatting with House member Susan Molinari, the convention's keynote speaker.
Same political convention.
Different coverage.
The Republican National Committee wants you to see its convention on TV ``unfiltered'' - without a Jennings or a Rather or a Tom Brokaw stepping in and pulling the focus away from what is happening on the podium at the San Diego Convention Center.
For CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, PBS and CNN, convention coverage means lots of on-camera interviews and less time spent on the podium. One minute, it's Henry Kissinger speaking to a reporter. The next minute, it's an interview with Phil Gramm in the midst of the delegations. Then it's the network anchors interviewing the network correspondents.
The people addressing the delegates tend to be ignored.
They become background noise.
That's coverage through a network filter, says the Republican hierarchy. To give it to the viewers straight from the podium, the GOP, in league with the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, spent more than $1 million for time on the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel and the USA network.
They call it unconventional convention coverage.
The GOP reasons that if Jennings goes on and on about gay rights, and PBS debates the impact of the Reagan wing of the Republican party on the 1996 election, viewers miss the good stuff unfolding out of camera range.
That would be one speaker after another delivering this message from the podium: the GOP wants to cut taxes for the average Main Street American, keep illegal drugs away from the kids, curb crime, make sure that everyone in the U.S. can read and write English and show kindness to the elderly
Hug an old person today, says the GOP.
The Texas governor, George W. Bush, made it clear that GOP-TV would be a 10-hour infomercial.
``We are here,'' he said, ``to work on getting the ticket splitters and independents to vote Republican.''
The GOP is using The Family Channel to sell itself to America, just as Kenny Kingston and Dionne Warwick use infomercials to sell their psychic hotlines on late-night television.
Too many illiterate Americans? No problem, says the GOP on FAM. See how Republicans in Texas fixed it. Too many kids using drugs? See how they solved that problem in Cincinnati, says the GOP on FAM. All that's missing is a 1-800 number.
The GOP put a couple of anchors (Bruce Hamilton and Suzy DeFrancis) in a convention sky box, and brought in some floor reporters to give GOP-TV the look of an impartial network broadcast. The veil fell quickly when DeFrancis started using the word ``we'' in talking about how ``we'' will succeed with a tax-reform plan and how ``we'' are sure that Bob Dole will soon be president.
The Family Channel coverage resumes tonight at 9. (The Republicans are getting the same kind of unfiltered, gavel-to-gavel coverage for free on C-SPAN. But C-SPAN doesn't push the Republican agenda.)
If it's unconventional coverage you want, check out Comedy Central, which will be reporting from San Diego on the hour and half hour through Thursday. Or MTV.
On Comedy Central, they have Al Franken, Chris Rock and Ariana Huffington in the field asking questions you'll never hear on The Family Channel's GOP-TV.
Let's suppose the creaky knees of former quarterback Kemp - he'll be anointed as Dole's running mate this week - give out. Who would you bring off the bench to replace him, asked Huffington of the delegates.
Their choice: Quarterback Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys.
MTV at 11:30 p.m. uses the platform of its ``Choose or Loose'' programming with Tabitha Soren of Hampton covering the young Republicans in San Diego. MTV located some rowdy young Republicans the other night. - rowdy young Republicans uncovered on a Chicago-to-California train trip.
Rowdy Republicans? That's a first.
Bet you'll never see them on GOP-TV. by CNB