The GOP Convention MegaMittensThread!

[CountDeMoney]

Poor Madcow seems to be having to dig up obscure crape to hitch about, what with nobody speaking today.

Stop hating the truth.  Stop Leaning Backward.

[derspiess]

Poor Madcow seems to be having to dig up obscure crape to hitch about, what with nobody speaking today.

WHY ARE YOU WATCHING MSNBC?

It's always sort of been a guilty pleasure.  Know your enemy and all that.

[citizen k]

They have no business being there. Our message is to them is that your home is in the Democratic Party

HEY GARBON

"Too many Republicans are misunderstanding what being a conservative is all about. It's about keeping the government out of our lives to the greatest extent possible," said Ms. Longwell, who recently became engaged to her longtime girlfriend in Washington, D.C., where gay marriage is legal.

[CountDeMoney]

It's always sort of been a guilty pleasure.  Know your enemy and all that.

You know you're all about Big Ed.

[garbon]

They have no business being there. Our message is to them is that your home is in the Democratic Party

HEY GARBON

Is that supposed to phase me? I'm sure the AFA would also say I have no business going to church.

[CountDeMoney]

Is that supposed to phase me? I'm sure the AFA would also say I have no business going to church.

A lot of organizations associated with the conservatards would say you have no business doing a lot of things.  Like doing your gay thing.  Or voting.  Or using the same bathroom I do.

But you go ahead, and keep rooting for them.

[derspiess]

Is that supposed to phase me? I'm sure the AFA would also say I have no business going to church.

A lot of organizations associated with the conservatards would say you have no business doing a lot of things.  Like doing your gay thing.  Or voting.  Or using the same bathroom I do.

But you go ahead, and keep rooting for them.

Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?

[garbon]

Is that supposed to phase me? I'm sure the AFA would also say I have no business going to church.

A lot of organizations associated with the conservatards would say you have no business doing a lot of things.  Like doing your gay thing.  Or voting.  Or using the same bathroom I do.

But you go ahead, and keep rooting for them.

Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?

I don't think he does.  After all, he might then notice that while he's telling me to go ahead and do my own thing, he's really say that I have no business doing so.

[CountDeMoney]

Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?

Nope.  But that's OK, I don't listen to you either.

[Syt]

http://buzzmachine.com/2012/08/25/reporters-why-are-you-in-tampa/

Reporters: Why are you in Tampa?

I challenge every journalist in Tampa for the Republican convention — every one of the 15-16,000 of you — to answer this:
* Why are you there?
* What will we learn from you?
* What actual reporting can you possibly do that delivers anything of value more than the infomercial — light on the info, heavy on the 'mercial — that the conventions have become?
* Would you be better off back at home covering voters and their issues?
* Can we in the strapped news business afford this luxury?

Figure that those 15k journos spend $300 a night each on a hotel room times five nights, plus $500 for transportion. That's $2,000. And I'm figuring they'll be slurping up free meals and drinks. So $2,000 is probably (pardon me) conservative. That's $30,000,000. Now multiply that times two conventions. That's $60,000,000.

Why? For what?

Note that even while newspapers and news organizations have shrunken drastically, we are sending the same number of journalists to the conventions that we sent in 2008 and 2004.

Why? Editorial ego: It's fun to be there, in the pack. It's fun for a paper or station to say, "We have our man/woman in Tampa/Charlotte." Well goody for you.

It's a waste.

Take that $60,000,000 and divide it by a fully loaded labor cost of, say, $100,000 per head and it would pay for 600 reporters for a year. At $50,000 for a hyperlocal reporter, we'd get 1,200 towns covered — more than Patch! What could they do versus what you will do in Tampa and Charlotte transcribing marketing messages and horrid memes?

Or we could pay for Homicide Watch 1,500 times over, instead of just paying attention to a shooting that happens where tourists wander.

Those 15,000 journos will — three-to-one — cover 2,286 delegates (6,000 for those spendthrift Democrats) wearing funny hats, saying nothing new.

At least 3,775 newspaper jobs were lost last year; 39,806 since mid-2007; one in three newsroom jobs have been eliminated since 1989. How's that make you feel, convention press corps?

We can see whatever we want to see on C-SPAN (and I don't begrudge the networks for giving us America's Got Talent instead of the conventions since at least AGT has surprises; the conventions are scripted).

Commentary? There'll be more than we can possibly use this year on Twitter and Google+ and blogs and everywhere. We don't need to pundits' palaver. Citizens will comment this year.

So enjoy yourself, hacks. You're living off the last dollars of your business. And for what? Tradition? Where has that gotten us?

Please prove me wrong. In a week, show me the amazing reporting we couldn't have gotten if you weren't there.

[Eddie Teach]

Commentary? There'll be more than we can possibly use this year on Twitter and Google+ and blogs and everywhere. We don't need to pundits' palaver. Citizens will comment this year.

Yep. Lots of people talking, not many listening, at least not on a scale to support $300 hotel rooms.

[derspiess]

Great points, but I wonder if this dude will also criticize the Dem convention coverage.

[CountDeMoney]

Great points, but I wonder if this dude will also criticize the Dem convention coverage.

Probably, considering there may very well be even more journalists there.

[Maximus]

Great points, but I wonder if this dude will also criticize the Dem convention coverage.

Probably, considering there may very well be even more journalists there.

And considering that he did criticize it in that article.

[Neil]

Great points, but I wonder if this dude will also criticize the Dem convention coverage.

Didn't he just do that?  The numbers he's using are for both conventions combined.

Besides, the Democratic convention is ever more pointless than the Republican one.  At least the Republicans are actually trying to sell their message.  The Democrats just have to chant 'Four More Years!' for a few days.