TELEVISION ANALYSIS : Convention’s ‘Big Stories’ Look Smaller From a Distance

On Monday, Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. and his followers bolted, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton spat at each other, liberals and moderates duked it out in the aisles, abortion-rights foes stormed the podium and everyone inside Madison Square Garden buzzed about Ross Perot naming Sister Souljah as his running mate.

The media wished.

In reality, the most shocking occurrence at Monday’s opening session of the Democratic National Convention was CNN talk show host Larry King turning up as a floor reporter. King, concluding an interview with a veteran female delegate: “You’re an angel.”

Oh, there was the “Let Jerry speak” boomlet, with the former California governor’s delegates loudly demanding that he be allowed to address the convention and, presumably, shatter the party’s meticulously crafted image of unity. In the absence of any genuine big news, this orchestrated protest for failed presidential candidate Brown became the convention’s first soaring hot-air balloon.

King, interrupting an in-studio interview with several female senatorial candidates: “We have some action at the California delegation!” Quick, to the floor, where Brown delegates are waving their placards.

King is not alone in at times broadcasting out of position at the convention. “That’s the latest from Madison Square Garden,” NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw said to “MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour” anchorman Robert MacNeil on PBS.

In a historic cost-cutting venture, NBC News and the “News-hour” are merging convention coverage three hours a night. In the past, the three major commercial networks have fretted about whether to offer repetitive gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions.

However, this year’s PBS coverage bloc, along with limited separate coverage on NBC, CBS and ABC and gavel-to-gavel coverage on CNN and C-SPAN, is surely adequate for partisan meetings that are little more than political rallies and commercials for their respective parties.

The nominating conventions have been light-on-news, heavy-on-image events for years, and there will be no exceptions in 1992. Monday’s prevalent TV cliche was that Clinton needs this convention to “define himself” for voters. As if he hadn’t already got a crack at that in a multitude of one-on-one TV chats.

A problem for journalists is distortion. When you’re on the scene covering these conventions, everything seems bigger than it is.

When you’re in this glamorous epicenter of global media, it becomes your universe. You’re exhilarated by the cheers, energized by the crowds, excited by the potential for conflict, however limited.

When you’re there, you’re convinced the entire world is watching and caring, and that even minor political infighting resonates cosmically.

But when instead you’re experiencing this epic photo opportunity through TV, and this week hearing one Bush/Quayle-bashing tirade after another--(Barbara Jordan’s keynote speech excepted)--the reasons for tuning in diminish.

One night doesn’t make a convention telecast. So far, however, happy days are not here again.