TV news tries to cover the RNC despite hostility to the press

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CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane wasn’t quite sure what was going on Saturday night. He was covering former President Donald Trump’s rally in Western Pennsylvania when he heard sounds that reminded him of fireworks. They were gunshots.

Suddenly MacFarlane realized he was in potential danger – and that a nearby rival was trying to protect him.

“Rachel Scott pulled me down,” says MacFarlane, referring to the ABC News veteran. She “grabbed my arm and told me to go under the bleachers.” On Sunday morning, MacFarlane recounts diversity“I gave her a big hug.”

As television networks try to pivot from one of the rarest of events – an assassination attempt on a former U.S. president – to coverage of the Republican National Convention, such goodwill may be in short supply. MacFarlane, who has stayed in Pennsylvania to cover the investigation into what has been described as an assassination attempt on Trump by a 20-year-old man, was surprised by some of the abuse hurled at him.

“I can tell you that in the last 24 hours I’ve noticed more people shouting at me,” MacFarlane says. “The language is more violent, more vitriolic.” He has heard people say to him, “I hope you die,” “this is your fault.”

“This is different from ‘fake news,’” he says.

No mainstream media outlet will pull back on its coverage of the RNC, a milestone on the road to the White House. But there are growing concerns about sensitivity at a time when the already polarized national audience seems even more receptive. People at the news networks describe plans for RNC coverage as “fluctuating,” given the importance of tracking and investigating reactions to this weekend’s political violence.

“The whole thing has taken on a different tone,” says Fox News host Martha MacCallum, who regularly co-hosts the network’s election coverage with Bret Baier. “The nation is stunned by what happened, and whether people support the former president or not, I just feel like it’s focused everyone’s attention in a way that, of course, we never expected.”

There are already signs that media companies are gauging the collective mood of the audience. NBCUniversal decided to pause regular MSNBC programming on Monday, limiting the cable network to a joint “special report” feed that also aired on the live-streaming channel NBC News Now, at least for the early part of the day. That meant “Morning Joe” didn’t have to be shown on the first day of the Republican National Convention. And Comedy Central decided to cancel scheduled broadcasts of its satirical “Daily Show” from Milwaukee, where the RNC is being held. In fact, the program will be canceled on Monday, the evening Jon Stewart usually hosts.

Audiences seem very interested in the latest developments on both sides. More than 24 million people tuned in to President Biden’s press conference during the NATO summit on Thursday, an unusually high number for such an event (and a possible reflection of Biden’s decision not to have many such conversations with the media).

So plans to provide extensive coverage of the RNC remain in place. ABC News plans to stream an hour on ABC News Live at 9 p.m., followed by an hour on the ABC broadcast network each night of the RNC. Both will feature David Muir and Linsey Davis, and more streaming programs are planned.

Fox News plans to air special coverage each night at 10 p.m., hosted by MacCallum and Baier. CNN’s plans for Monday include coverage of opening calls at 2 p.m., hosted by Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper, with Erin Burnett and Wolf Blitzer handling late-night duties before Tapper and Cooper return to prime time. CBS News plans several hours of coverage on its broadband channel CBS News 24/7, with an hour of coverage at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Norah O’Donnell will anchor three hours of prime-time coverage via streaming and linear. MSNBC’s full programming lineup is expected to begin Tuesday, when Rachel Maddow and a phalanx of the network’s opinion anchors and analysts take over prime time.

NBC is likely to get a boost from an interview between Lester Holt and President Biden, scheduled to air Monday at 9 p.m. Holt and Savannah Guthrie will co-anchor prime-time coverage on NBC News Now and NBC for an hour on Monday and Tuesday, and two hours on Wednesday and Thursday.

The challenge for most news organizations is that they have to cover multiple storylines, says Marc Burstein, senior producer of ABC News’ special coverage. Most will be keeping an eye on the investigation into the Trump rally shooting and President Biden’s standing in the Democratic Party, as well as the story of the convention itself and whether Trump will try to unite voters as he recently promised to do. “We have to weave all three aspects into the coverage,” says Burstein.

Trump’s vice presidential nominee will also be under close scrutiny, MacCallum says, as the former president told Fox News he expects to make an announcement soon. “The story is moving very quickly,” she says. “It feels like we’re in a historic moment in many ways. It’s very exciting.”

Security remains an issue for many leaders, Burstein says. “It’s expected that there will be some hostility toward the press,” he says, especially after the attack on Trump. “It got even worse over the weekend, and we’re prepared for that.”

Many news organizations produced hours of programming they hadn’t anticipated this weekend, and now they’re having to cover an election-year event that has suddenly taken on new relevance. So there’s another factor at play: Can the press keep up its current pace?