Cover yer hindquarters…
What does it mean to “cover” an event? Is a few hours of network “coverage” too little?
Tim Rutten wonders about the public interest in regard to convention coverage. And he wonders how it is the networks, using the public airwaves, get away with a few hours coverage of an important civic event?
Unlike newspapers, magazines or cable channels, the networks–and all local television stations, for that matter–transmit their signals over airwaves owned by the people of the United States. Their licenses, in fact, require them to operate in the public interest. In recent years, timid federal regulators have more or less construed that requirement as a tedious formality. But it remains on the books, and flouting it in so flagrant a fashion is, at the very least, in poor taste.
And he correctly scorns USA Today for “casting” Ann Coulter to “cover” the Democratic convention and Michael Moore to “cover” the Republican convention.
What should it mean to cover and event?
