But conventions have changed dramatically in the past 25 years, since the advent of the primary system robbed them of their suspense. Parties no longer have any real business to conduct at their conventions. The complaints were loudest from network television executives, some of whom warned that this could be the last year for live convention coverage. It's all about image, they said, as if the only thing they care about is substance. There is another irony that journalists whining about the dearth of convention news appear to have overlooked.
Journalists are the ones who for years have treated conventions as a metaphor for governing.
The story line was simple. How could you possibly run the country. To avoid those stories, the Republicans made sure to control both the message and the image of their convention, and told everyone upfront precisely what they had in mind. The result was that the big three broadcast networks came to San Diego planning less coverage than ever before, just six hours in prime time, which then drew a substantially smaller audience on ABC, CBS and NBC than four years ago. Indeed there is.