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 of panels of “experts” repeating what you’ve already read online or heard earlier in the day, they’ve got three historians (Michael Beschloss, Richard Norton Smith, and Peniel Joseph) bringing interesting, if salon-ish, perspective and Andy Kohut soberly running down polling data on American public opinion.
I have to admit that it’s not always my pace. But after two straight weeks of conventioneering, aren’t you ready for a change?
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.