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DNC on TV: A day of divisiveness ends in show of prime time unity

For many viewers, the conventions exist for the relatively brief period the broadcast networks cover in prime time, which on Monday included rousing, pointed speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and comedian Sarah Silverman - a Sanders supporter - who told his supporters to back Clinton. "You're being ridiculous," she said to holdouts.
Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and comedian Sarah Silverman - a Sanders supporter - who told his supporters to back Clinton. "You're being ridiculous," she said to holdouts.Read moreCLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

For many viewers, the conventions exist for the relatively brief period the broadcast networks cover in prime time, which on Monday included rousing, pointed speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who took the stage at 10:50 p.m., capped the evening with a speech that was as much about the movement he led as it was about directing his passionate supporters toward his onetime rival Hillary Clinton.

He took a while to get there, but he eventually said it: "Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States."

In TV terms, it was an hour (and change) of power, but it wasn't the whole story.

The first day of the Democratic National Convention was a feast for cable news and public television, which dined out much of the day on the fallout from the breakfast booing of departing Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and signs that Sanders himself couldn't control his disgruntled supporters.

At the same time, the appointment of CNN and ABC contributor Donna Brazile as interim incoming chair of the national committee was a reminder just how fast the revolving door between politics and TV news can spin.

It was almost surreal to see Brazile interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer about her decision to apologize to Sanders for what she had termed the "ridiculous and insensitive and inappropriate emails" exposed by a hack of DNC's correspondence.

"That's the way you handle a crisis," noted CNN's John King, who acknowledged their friendship but not the ongoing oddity of news networks paying partisans like Brazile - and Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord - to appear side by side with reporters and anchors. (ABC and CNN have at least temporarily stopped paying Brazile, who was a national committee vice chair while under contract to them.)

Other notes from the first day of DNC channel-surfing:

-- Do not peddle your used kitty litter to Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith. After playing a clip of Donald Trump Jr. suggesting, among other things, that reports linking the hacking of the Democrats' email to Russia might have come from the "house cat" of Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, Smith snapped that the information was "not coming from . . .house cats, but straight from federal sources to Fox News."

-- It came too early for ABC, CBS and NBC, but New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker's speech was one of the best of the night (though, like far too many speakers at both conventions, he seemed to mistrust the microphone, to his voice's detriment).

-- CNN (and Philadelphia's) Jake Tapper played the hometown card as he talked about the reception Schultz received at a breakfast for the Florida delegation.

"I'm from Philadelphia. I know what booing can sound like. Those were some really mean ones." (Tapper also introduced panelist Michael Nutter as Philadelphia "mayor for life," which probably came as news to Mayor Jim Kenney.)

-- They may have taken some of Philly out of the boy: Asked if he'd succumbed, during an interview, to the lure of Termini Bros. cannoli, Tapper murmured, like someone's killjoy mother, "moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips." As Donald Trump might tweet: sad!

-- Homegrown hits you may have missed: The choir of Mother Bethel AME and its multiple soloists, kicking off the first day of the convention with a stirring performance of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Boyz II Men followed up with "Motownphilly."

-- Minnesota Sen. (and Saturday Night Live veteran) Al Franken returned briefly to his comedy roots, something, as CNN analyst Gloria Borger noted, he seldom does.

"I'm Al Franken, Minnesotan, senator and world-renowned expert on right-wing megalomaniacs - Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and now Donald Trump. . .I got my doctorate in megalomaniac studies from Trump University," said Franken, who jokingly urged delegates to ignore their families to work tirelessly for Clinton.

-- "Relax. I put some cream on it." That was comedian Sarah Silverman, talking about having spent the past year "feeling the Bern" before adding that she will vote for Clinton "with gusto." When portions of the crowd continued to chant "Bernie," she paused.

"Can I just say to the Bernie-or-bust people? You're being ridiculous," she said.

-- MSNBC labeled Paul Simon's performance of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" "Breaking News." You'd think Art Garfunkel had shown up.

-- The first night of the RNC brought us Scott Baio, Anthony Sabato Jr. and Willie Robertson. The Democrats on Monday featured Silverman, Simon, Eva Longoria and Demi Lovato. So which party should cast the next Celebrity Apprentice?

–- CNN and Fox News both cut away from Philadelphia Monday afternoon to carry a portion of Trump's stream-of-consciousness remarks at a rally in Virginia, while MSNBC stayed put, missing the chance to hear Trump talk about not taking naps, his surprise that Sanders had "folded" and his unflattering theory about Clinton's middle name.

– A reporter for PBS/NPR interviewed a male Sanders supporter who was wearing a hat that appeared to be made of Bernie Beer cans with crochet trim. Sometimes a picture is worth way more than a thousand words.

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