Good morning Chicago…

Well, I think I should probably have to do a trip like this every so often, just to remind me of certain aspects of media culture. This little suburban hotel in outring suburban Chicago has a very nice complimentary hot breakfast it offers. At the same time as you’re eating breakfast, however, the hotel treats you to Fox News. I can’t decide if it’s a virtue that we can’t afford cable at home, or a huge obstacle to my own research, but I have to say that I would find it that much harder to keep my spirits up if I had to greet every day with Fox News first. On the other hand, their “frame” is getting so shrill that it’s easy to pick up. Last night I watched some of the local ABC affiliate’s post-speech coverage of the DNC (after the Daily Show, of course), and found people commenting most often on Barack Obama’s speech (perhaps that makes sense, since this is Chicago), and then on Teresa Kerry. The local framing was of joy at Obama’s ability to tell a story that included everybody, and some disappointment that Teresa did not speak from her heart about her love for her husband. The other evening’s speakers (Ted Kennedy, Ron Reagan, Howard Dean) weren’t even mentioned.

I've already written about how I think this latter frame about Teresa didn't work for me, but that coverage is particularly interesting set next to Fox News' coverage this morning. They had the headlines "Ted's Tirade" and "Teresa Talks," and the "anchors" -- this is a ludicrous term to use for Barbie and Ken's "chit chatting" -- focused on how angry Ted Kennedy was (the clip they kept playing over and over and over was "the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush") and how "talkative" (read: too pushy on issues) Teresa Heinz Kerry was. Barack Obama wasn't even mentioned in the 20 minutes I was eating my breakfast.

One of the key things the rest of us need to keep in mind is that if conservative -- actually, let's just be clear, right wing -- folk are having to frame the issues in this way, then it's clear they don't think they can be persuasive by dealing with ideas straight on. They have to convince people not to attend to the ideas, and they're doing so by trying to invalidate the speakers. I hope this strategy backfires!

But I wonder... this very cynical strategy depends for its success on people not having the space or the time, or indeed the psychic room, to to be reflective. The mainstream media have so thoroughly bought into maintaining a climate of fear in this country that there isn't a whole lot of room... especially not to "show our face of hope" as Teresa put it. Sigh. Not to mention that most folk are only getting these itty bitty sound bites from the convention placed into this other context, rather than sustained coverage minus talking head punditry.

Let me once again praise the Net -- and the privilege of highspeed connections in a hotel -- for providing me the opportunity to hear the Democrats make their case. As this week goes on I am becoming eager to hear the Republicans make their case -- or at least try to -- in the same way. Because who knows what media framing has done to THEIR ideas?