Democrats have a set of lofty goals for the convention tonight. Among them: Just do it all on time.
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President Biden spoke on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Good evening! I’m in Chicago, where we’re covering the Democrats’ prime-time problem, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s selfie-taking strategy and a Republican’s view of the proceedings here. My colleague Michael Grynbaum, who covers media, starts us off. — Jess Bidgood
By Michael M. Grynbaum
Democrats are headed into their second night of convention programming with lofty goals: Persuade the persuadables. Inspire the masses. And, please, just try to do it all on time.
After Monday night’s telecast stretched well past midnight on the East Coast — a delay that organizers blamed on “raucous applause” from the crowd — several speakers were contacted and instructed to shorten their prepared remarks. And Tuesday’s proceedings began at 5:30 sharp, local time.
If those changes result in a tighter show, it won’t matter for President Biden, whose valedictory speech on Monday began a few minutes before 11:30 p.m. Eastern and ended in the wee hours. All of which prompted a question bouncing around Chicago on Tuesday: Does it matter if a president speaks in prime time?
Biden’s late-night appearance was not by design. Organizers had hoped his big moment would start 40 minutes earlier, within the traditional bounds of television’s most watched hours between 8 and 11 p.m. — and before millions of voters in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania went to bed.
In fact, Democratic officials went to great lengths to ensure Biden did not speak even later, axing a planned performance by the singer James Taylor and a lavishly produced video tribute to the departing president.
When I observed on X last night that the delayed start might reduce the size of Biden’s live TV audience, I heard from many commenters who pointed out that millions of Americans live in other time zones, and that millions more were likely to watch a recording of his speech later, on the internet.
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Source: nytimes.com
