Cable Coverage From New Angles

Rosario Dawson's advocacy group helped Sí TV viewers select the pair who will cover the conventions. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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"So yeah, we're partisan -- partisan in the sense that we're interested in this black man's future because our future is tied to him. The complaints that 'you're covering one convention and not the other' misses the racial politics of American culture."

Over at Sí TV, network suits thought there would be no better way to engage its viewership, which skews to the young and is English-dominant, than to send two viewers. The network, available in about 20 million homes, fielded 150 video submissions in its contest, and more than 50,000 votes were tallied at VotoLatino.org, a voter advocacy group co-founded by actress Rosario Dawson.

"We wanted to show two sides of the coin and give a very personal account of [the conventions]," says Lisa Black, senior vice president of marketing and digital media for the four-year-old network.

Other entertainment networks with news divisions -- MTV, Black Entertainment Television, Univision, Telemundo -- plan to provide varying amounts of live convention coverage. Univision and Telemundo will air both nominees' acceptance speeches live, with simultaneous translation. Last week, BET's news division decided to beef up its live coverage of the Democrats. It's still mulling whether to take the Republicans live.

"Our focus is to make sure that our audience sees both conventions," says Jeff Johnson, host of BET's weekly news program "The Truth With Jeff Johnson." "How we do that will be determined by the access we get."

The Democrats, he said, have given BET lots of access; both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sat down for interviews for 30-minute specials. "We have been attempting to get a sit-down with McCain since at least November," he says, adding, "We're in real trouble if we go on the air and we don't have anyone to talk to."

Meanwhile, as part of MTV's "Choose or Lose" campaign, street reporters will prowl both conventions, carrying Nokia N95 phones, transmitting the action on the Internet. The network also will air daily news coverage on all its channels and will feature analysis and commentary on its popular video countdown show, "TRL."

"We're not CNN, and we're not Fox News, and we're not MSNBC, and we don't pretend to be," says Ocean MacAdams, senior vice president of MTV News. "They're dedicated to blanket coverage. For us, it's specific issues and stories that we want to cover that break through to our audience."

Adds the MTV personality known only as Sway: "We serve as a conduit to . . . a demographic that doesn't get to speak out. That's always been our niche."