The Scoop - http://www.bobharris.com/ THE SCOOP for July 31, 2000 ___________________________ GOP Convention Notes #2 � 2000 Bob Harris http://www.bobharris.com mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * = italics GOP Convention notes from Sunday: The convention, naturally enough, is *not* being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which is downtown and would be readily available to protesters. The GOP is south of town, in Philly's shiny new hockey rink, the First Union Arena. The Convention Center, instead, is home to PoliticalFest, a Spam-like simulacrum where visitors can witness symbols of the democratic process that have nothing to do with actual democracy itself. These are actually on display, my hand to God: o A scary-looking two-foot tall tiki mask of George Bush o A Bill Blass gown worn by Barbara Bush while dining with the President of Yemen o A jacket owned by Gerald Ford's mother o A menu from Harry Truman's inauguration o One of Herbert Hoover's fishing reels If that's not enough, nearby is the Memorabilia Marketplace, a shopping mall selling oodles of replicas of similar crap, plus a bazillion official George W. Bush T-shirts, hats, lapel pins, and plush elephants. Much of this will be available for free to the rich people back at actual convention. People without credentials, of course have to pay. ___________________________ The side of the First Union Arena has been sold as ad space to a company that is not First Union. Apparently *everything* is for sale here. ___________________________ Outside of the sports complex (Veterans Stadium, home to the Eagles, the Phillies, and the Army/Navy football game is nearby), the neighborhood quickly becomes one W. himself wouldn't dream of walking around alone. Thanks to an attempted rape, NBC has actually relocated all of the female employees out of the nearby Stadium Holiday Inn. Thanks to the arena's location, a massive police presence, and other logistics, protesters are nowhere to be seen. Not one. All the protests today were closer to downtown. About 750 people listened to Ralph Nader over near City Hall this morning. Perhaps twice that many showed up for the Unity 2000 rally. This was all in other parts of town, safely away from the prying eyes of the assembled media. ___________________________ There are 15,000 reporters here, warehoused mostly in four giant inflated temporary pavilions the size of aircraft hangers and lined up adjacent to the arena itself. The pavilions are a self-contained world, complete with offices, restaurants, bathrooms, and even golf cart transportation. Many reporters will do all of their work within this bubble. There's often nothing interesting going on. Nothing. So thousands of news stories are about to be written about the lack of anything to write about. Here's how bad it is: I've personally already been interviewed by the AP and the Houston Chronicle, and they didn't even know who I was. Reporters are literally walking up to other reporters, starting conversations, and then taking notes. I called a friend of mine who was at a protest where pairs of shoes, representing victims of gun violence, were put on display. Not one reporter got anywhere near him. I ducked my head into the booth of a *major* weekly news magazine and asked if anyone knew how to get to the Unity 2000 march, exactly. No one did. ___________________________ I can't help but think that the amount of energy that went into constructing this temporary city might better have gone into rebuilding the surrounding neighborhood of Philadelphia itself. ___________________________ Reporters arrive at the convention via the GOP Express, a series of private shuttle buses and vans given special priority through traffic. The bus I rode in on was allowed to pass a police road block at the freeway exit, then went through a courteous search prior to admission to the convention grounds. As the Secret Service agent eyed my bag as if it were a bomb, I noticed the GOP slogan in forty-foot letters on the side of the arena: Renewing America's Purpose, Together. Nothing makes you want to Renew America more than feeling like you're in a third world country. ___________________________ Finally inside, I got my first peek at our broadcast booth along Radio Row. Michael Medved will be in front of me and to the right. Just like in real life. Oliver North will be far to my right, and facing the other way entirely. Also just like in real life. ___________________________ In Pavilion 3, a group of reporters were staring at ABC's morning interview show in rapt attention. They were all watching George Stephanopolous... with the volume down. I have no idea what this means. I don't even want to think about it. Tom Brokaw put in a brief appearance at the MSNBC booth, about 100 feet from ours. He seemed to listen vaguely to a producer and mostly stared into space. A small crowd gathered to watch him do this. ___________________________ Later, I passed the same TV, this time tuned to C-SPAN, just as John McCain told the Shadow Convention audience that George W. Bush is the true candidate of change. Boos. Catcalls. More boos. McCain almost left. Arianna Huffington came out and pleaded with people to stop. McCain finished his speech, skipped his planned Q&A session, and left the room immersed in hostility. John McCain's credibility as a reformer is now officially zero. ___________________________ The Courtesy Desk area is flanked by an endless reservoir of coffee urns, cold soda, and TastyKakes, a local brand of soft brownie or unfilled cupcake which is brown, sweet, and vaguely chocolatey. These are free and all-you-can-eat, all day long. When the soda and TastyKakes frequently run out, they are immediately replenished by as many as *five people* carrying boxes in something akin to a diabetic commando raid. This one sight was worth the trip to Philly alone. ___________________________ A book-length treatment summarizing Bush's positions has been mass-produced and is available in giant free stacks to any and all. The only other authors I have ever seen distributed this way are Lyndon LaRouche and L. Ron Hubbard, who may have actually written their books. (In fairness, I'm sure there will be similar crap when the Democrats meet in a couple of weeks.) When the books run out, people arrive with boxes and replenish the piles. Infinite Bush, infinite TastyKakes. Infinite fear for the future. ___________________________ The sides of every garbage container, incidentally, have been sold as ad space. ___________________________ Inside the arena itself, twenty-foot photos of hockey and basketball greats have been temporarily plastered over with enormous portraits of George W. and family. I can't help but remember that Saddam Hussein's people have a similar giant portrait fetish. Enormous flowering plants are being rolled in by underpaid workers. The band is practicing short musical pieces to cue commercial ins and outs. Balloons for dropping in choreographed joy are already strapped in giant nets to the ceiling. There is a Disneyish sense of falsified spontaneity throughout. My favorite sign in the arena? A right-pointing arrow, labeled: Victory Pavilion GOP Express Mens Restroom All in the same direction. ___________________________ NBC's broadcast position in the Arena is directly behind the delegates from Guam and American Samoa. For a moment, a little justice. ___________________________ The convention, not surprisingly, is almost entirely white. (To be fair, so was the Green convention, which cheered anything about conservation and the environment with not a single recycling bin in sight, leaving the hall after Nader's acceptance speech in an inch-hich layer of confetti, popped balloons, and used beverage containers.) With strikingly few exceptions, almost the only black faces present are the hired help. Go a floor below the main entry concourse and walk the unpainted floors and ride the service elevators and ask the folks in there what they think of the GOP -- or Democratic -- plans on behalf of working people. Several have promised to come on my show Friday, after the main convention is over and they don't need to fear for their temporary gigs. I'm curious to find out how they've been treated by their employers. In the meantime, I watch reporters as they scurry, looking to see if they even notice all the folks doing the heavy work so the air conditioning and the wiring and the porta-plumbing all works. My dad used to bust his back doing that kind of work for GM. Watch how many reporters even deign to make eye contact. You want to see the real media bias in this country first-hand? Get up close. You can see it in their eyes. ___________________________ ___________________________ Bob Harris is a political humorist whose morning radio show can be heard online from 8-11 am EST at http://www.radioforchange.com. To receive a free email subscription to The Scoop, just send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________ Bob�s Big Plug-O-Rama� (updated 7/29/00): *Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole* was recently nominated for a Firecracker Alternative Book Award as one of the five best political books of the year. Also, the American Booksellers Association recently made *Steal This Book And Get Life Without Parole* a Recommended choice. The book can be ordered directly from http://www.commoncouragepress.com/steal.html at 25% off retail. You can read some ridiculously kind reviews at http://www.bobharris.com/book.htm. The morning show on www.RadioForChange.com airs from 8-11 each morning. 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