the correct answer to our "gps challenge" question was c, 114 million. that's about 97% of u.s. holds. so if you have that number at the tip of your fingertips, you probably worked this out. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." we are here in tampa for the republican convention that was supposed to kick off in this arena tomorrow. now, of course, has been delayed by a day because of a tropical storm heading for this part of florida. how much will the media allow a potential hurricane to blow away mitt romney's big event? is there enough political news here to justify the presence of 15,000 journalists? has the press obsessed on another storm, the one over senate candidate todd akin's comments on rape to the point almost of obscuring this gop

gathering? i'm howard kurtz, and this is a special convention edition of "reliable sources." i had thought the challenge for the hordes of journalists arriving, as you see a live shot of the "tampa bay times" arena, would be what to write about, a convention, basically a coronation of mitt romney, that question has been answered. we'll be writing about, talking about, tweeting about the weather. the question for all of us and the mead brazil as a whole and perhaps the country as a whole is how much the weather story is going to obscure the political event that brought us here to tampa. and joining us to talk about that -- roger simon, chief political correspondent for "politico." lauren ashburn, editor-in-chief of "daily download," the web site where i'm a contributor. lynn sweet, bureau chief of the "washington sun times."

and political reporter for the "washington post." i'm glad you made it through the long security difficulties outside. roger simon, we have a collision two of stories here. politics, which is your bailiwick, and extreme weather which television loves. which is going to win? >> everyone loves extreme weather. i mean, extreme weather has clear winners and losers. i've always wanted to stand outside and get blown over live on tv as i've seen so many -- >> i did that. >> you have? as a local reporter? >> as a local news reporter. >> you plan on doing it this week? >> no. >> there's no better credential to have. >> but here is the question, lauren ashburn. obviously monday's events canceled. the hurricane, tropical storm, rain sprinkling, whatever turns out to be will be the media focus. what happens when it gets to be tuesday and the convention is underway but the storm -- it could be a hurricane by then, hits the mainland somewhere north of tampa? the more that the medium, particularly television, concentrates on the storm, the less attention to the convention and that's not going to make the republicans happy. >> well, of course it's not. buff you can't control the weather -- but you can't control

the weather. you should have told michael steele this when he chose the place how many years ago. >> the republican chairman. you can't control the weather, but you can control what you choose to cover. >> come on, this is convention wall to wall. you know, wolf is going to be from 4:00 to midnight. all of the convention people are here, and your cbs box and pbs is on for three hours. i mean, there's going to be a lot of coverage, howie. >> i suspect at some point we'll switch. i've written a weather story. i was dubbed the weather reporter for the post post. yesterday my editors e-mailed me. at some point we'll switch to talking about what's going on in the convention. won't be wall-to-wall coverage. you had the republicans complaining already about some of the coverage saying why are the networks only covering it three hours. they to shift some things around. >> yeah. ann romney's speech moved from monday because the broadcast networks not playing them -- >> there's cable news, blogging, tweeting. i think lynn sweet has been -- >> this is the first convention i've been to where i had to

before coming here, i went and bought dry bags, i brought rain pants, i brought rain gear, and have bag toes keep everything dry. i -- baggies to keep everything dry. i think we could do two stories at once, it's not impossible. weather and politics. weather and politics. >> that's what the week should be about. >> and you know, some delegates, though, people are coming in today -- there will be legitimate stories about people who are paying -- people might not know it, they pay their own way to come here. since it is in tampa, it's a vacation. people bring families. you may just have people who aren't in the best mood to carry out the party, you know, railing cries. remember minnesota, the first night four years ago? they had weather problems, too. you forget about it. >> the problems weren't in minnesota, they were in florida which caused john mccain to cancel the first night -- i think you're all being a little too dismissive of the challenge here for mitt romney and the republicans. even if it's split screen coverage on tuesday, let's say, half weather, half convention,

and that may be generous, this is a four-day period where romney was going to introduce himself and his running mate paul ryan to the country. to the extent that that is obscured, overshadowed, or partially distracted, that's a real net negative for him and the republicans. >> absolutely. since the only purpose of a convention is to have a flawless, seamless tv show. that's already been trashed. i mean, all the -- >> hasn't even started yet, roger. >> all the people who were supposed to speak monday night like mike huckabee and others who consider themselves important now have to be found spaces on other nights, bumping other people, and there are easily bruised egos involved here. not so much ours. but the politicians -- >> how long have you been around television? i could think of a few. >> this definitely isn't the show they wanted. you give them -- i thought when we were talking about the ability of the press to cover both, obviously i think we can and are doing it. clearly what's happening here

won't get all the showcase display they want. >> here's something that occurs to me, lauren ashburn. that is even given television's great attraction to extreme weather, extreme weather logos and banners, team coverage, it seems to me that you have a collision here between something that is a real news story, which is a storm, possibly a hurricane, we don't know where it's going to go, how much damage it's going to inflict, and the overly scripted nature that we all complain about every four years of convention. maybe that's why weather is winning out. >> well, because it mixes it up. i was talking to governor rick scott a few minutes ago who only wanted to talk weather and the safety of the people in florida. here you have the governor of this state not talking about mitt romney and the convention, talking about how florida is going to help all of these different people. but you know, when it comes back to mitt romney and how this is going to affect him. we're still going get the coverage. you're still going to have republicans sitting at home in front of their television for

the entire evening watching all of the speeches. watching to say who's going to appear as the front-runner, maybe for the future. i don't think that the weather is going to detract from that. >> i think that's right. and you know, i guess something like 30 million to 40 million people watched last time. a lot of times these conventions are about a couple of sound bites that come out of the speeches. the keynotes that will be kristy, paul ryan -- ultimately he'll be fine, get his sound bites. guess what, we'll switch immediately to the dnc on the following week. >> the weather might just pass us, too. >> if they're smart they'll have pictures of romney and ryan filling sandbags. >> rain boots, yeah -- >> you have a career in p.r. >> this is my final point on this is, if there did not happen to be a convention in this state this week, say the convention

man two weeks ago and this storm came along, this is not some category 5 hurricane, it wouldn't be getting 1/15 of the coverage that it is going to get because of the potential for disruption of these four days -- everybody agree? >> i agree. >> and there's heightened concern because of hurricane katrina. >> and 20-year anniversary of hurricane andrew. >> hurricanes dominating the talk. when we come back, the latest guidance on isaac from the cnn weather center in atlanta. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.

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we'll go to the cnn weather center in atlanta. talk to meteorologist bonnie schneider for brand new information on where this storm, isaac, is heading. good morning, bonnie. what can you tell us about the direction of this storm? >> good morning, howard. i can tell you that the models have really shifted the path of isaac. we still have a harng and are looking -- hurricane warning and are looking at impact in the florida keys with hurricane-force winds. what's new as of moments ago is the new at 11:00 advisory that put new orleans under a hurricane watch. that means within 48 hours, we could see hurricane-force winds in the vicinity of the central gulf coast. again, it does include the city of new orleans. and that is brand new as of the 11:00 advisory. the intensity of isaac now remains the same. 65 mile-per-hour winds with gusts at hurricane-force strength, 75 miles per hour. i want to show the track because it's shifted to the west,

further away from florida, more into the central gulf. we're still looking at possibly a landfall in the florida keys, maybe near key west later today or tonight. and then the storm emerges in the gulf of mexico and all pushes westward. now we have the cone of uncertainty including cities like jackson, new orleans, mobile, and movinging aw ining florida. a dramatic change from where we were before. notice the intensity now. wednesday morning, 105 mile-per-hour winds. a category 2. it doesn't take too much more to be a category 3. >> bonnie? potentially bad news for those gulf coast states. so the cancelation of the first day of the republican national convention could turn out to have been for no reason if this storms actually misses the west coast of florida. is that corrected? >> not exactly because it is a large storm, howard. we're likely to see tropical storm-force winds impact cities like tampa. we are going to see squalls and heavy downpours of rain. if it does indeed push further to the west, it will be less of an impact.

i do believe there will be an impact on florida. back to you. >> all right. bonnie schneider in atlanta, thank you very much for that update as the storm dramatically seems to be changing direction. up next in tampa, this will past week's controversy surrounding congressman todd akin and rape overshadow the gop's convention message? and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar.

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from the moment that todd akin talked about "legitimate rape" and how rape victims could somehow will their bodies ton get pregnant, the outrageous remarks were a huge story and rightly snow. the senate candidate from missouri apologized but candidates continued ed td to him hard. >> you remember the house science committee. people are wondering how an idea like that could get in your head. >> well, that's a -- the point of the matter is is that, yes, pregnancy can happen as a result of rape. i understand that.

and i've acknowledged that facts. >> akin had few defendies even at fox where he was pushed to quit the race during an interview on his radio show. >> have you become a distraction for the next 77 days which can happen and keep claire mccaskill and obama from addressing their failed economic policies, i wouldn't want that on my conscience. have you thought about that? >>. >> i've given all the things that you said a lot of consideration. >> and it wasn't long before the press and liberal commentators made the rape uproar an issue in the presidential race. >> little date between what akin and paul ryan believe. ryan and the other republicans are just smarter about the way they talk about it. >> malika henderson, incredible story about akin. day after day this rape story was on the front page, top of the newscast. did you get the impression the media are trying to keep it

alive? >> no. i think it was a legitimate story. you have a sitting congressman talking about rape. then he was of course in this contested seat in missouri. the balance of the senate in -- you know, hangs in the balance with his seat. i think it was a legitimate story. i think, again, we're going to shift to the rnc at this point unless todd akin comes and stages some protest down here. i don't think people will be talking about it. the fact that huck by who in some -- huckabee who in some ways was his big defender might not be on stage is probably a good thing in terms of the republicans trying to get past this story. >> at the same time, the press seemed to me made some attempt to bring paul ryan into the story because of ryan and akin sharing the same position on the question of abortion and rape, talking about that. >> that was a legitimate connection to make because they had sponsored a bill together, and in all fairness -- >> bill together that had no exception for rape. ban abortion -- >> right. >> no exception for rape. >> right. >> paul ryan didn't make the remarks.

>> no, but i want twr-- to know where paul ryan stands, who's with him, supporting him. and i think -- i went in to journalism because i wanted to keep the government honest, and i wanted to report on politicians. and that's what that is. yes, it is fair. >> is there some attempt here by the media, consciously or unconsciously i should say, roger simon, to cast the gop as a party, large elements of which are indifferent to rape? >> i think all of this is part of what the democrats would call the republican war on women, which has been going on for a long time. and i think the media think that it's a legitimate story. >> so the media buy the democratic attack line of republican war on women, which is a very -- >> parts of it -- >> part of it. >> and that's not biased in your view? >> not buy as conclusion but buy it as a legitimate story to explore. and given that there are more

women voters than men voters, it's an important dynamic in this election. and the ryan story is perfectly legitimate. here's a guy who's been in legislative posts his entire life, he -- he makes laws. he's a lawmaker. he believes this stuff. and if the public can't focus on that, then there's no purpose to news. >> now todd akin, after he apologized, lynn blamed the liberal media for trying to drive him out of the race. >> i think that's nonsense. he had, to use our weather metaphor, the perfect storm. not only did he say something that would have been controversial anyway, and as you know in the original interview, the host doing the interview didn't follow up, didn't apparently do a story on it. the story was brought out because democratic allied trackers would see it and then pushed it out. so that's how it got out there. and that's a legitimate form of

inquiry. but the reason it had so many legs, it's not only who said it, which would have gotten maybe localized attention. he's in a big battleground state. he does have connections to paul ryan. and then the presidential candidate, mitt romney, called for him to step down. >> the missouri talk show host, charles jacko, did not follow up. he said later he just was too focused on getting to the next question. he said he had a brain fart, using his phrase. now other people waded into this, ""politico", k," tweeted he felt the congressman had misspoke. then he was taken off the story. was that too harsh a reaction for a single tweet? >> you know, this is the danger of tweeting and not thinking or tweeting while drunk or something. but i -- it it was a very odd tweet. i know we covered it at the "post." i don't know what has -- what other sort of sanctions he's had at "politico." but it seemed about right that he's wading in and seeming to give his opinion on this. that i --

>> taking a side on whether or not the congressman -- >> taking a side. >> it didn't seem like something that akin blurted out and didn't mean those words. >> right. yeah. >> he obviously believed it when he said it. >> he believed it when he said it. he sort of said this is what doctors, he'd read from doctors. he bheefed it when he said -- believed it when he said it. to step back and say what he really metropolitan was this, i thought was a bit much for cantonese to do that. and right for "politico" to take him off the story. >> the congressman said it wasn't one thing, it was two. one is "legitimate rape" and quote what's that, and that a woman can't get pregnant as a result of it? we have two issues here. >> right. >> then that's why saying somebody misspoke is -- is -- that's why we're discussing it, because there were two things also, not just one. >> the day after this controversy erupted sunday, congressman akin was scheduled to be piers morgan's program on cnn. he did not show up. was obviously the worst day of his campaign. we had this spectacle on the show.

>> congressman, you have an open invitation to join me in that chair whenever you feel up to it. if you don't keep your promise to appear on the show, then you are what we would call in britain a gutless little twerp. >> a gutless little twerp? appropriate language? >> this is a schoolboy, bratty schoolboy saying you didn't come to my show, and i'm going call you a twerp. i like piers. piers, no offense, but come on. why the language? why the name-calling? why do you need to go that far? the message says it all by itself. i'm not showing up. i'm not going into the media storm. >> you okay with the empty chair? >> yeah. >> it was good tv. yeah. >> i loved it. >> an empty suit refused to fill an empty chair. i can understand why piers was upset. and you know, what part of gutless little twerp is akin

now? >> you're doubling down. are you doubling down. >> wow. >> okay. >> his statement, i mean -- as -- the importance of his statement is that he believes that when women have children as a result of rape, the rape was voluntary on the woman's part because her magic rays did not destroy the sperm from the rapist. >> i don't know -- >> i'm not defending todd akin in any way, shape, or form. but when you call him gutless, look, he made a political decision that was not in the interest of his faltering campaign to go television at that time. >> hold often let me get to the press aspect of it. we're print reporters. i cannot tell you the number of people who have canceled interviews over my years of being in business starting, you know, a long time ago, when it's not to their advantage to do an interview, and probably we would have shrugged it off unless it was a huge, huge interview. it's interesting, you know, piers, as you're on tv, you know there's a different element.

i don't go out and promote my interviews. i know i don't say -- >> maybe you should. >> tonight, later today i'm talking to -- we don't do. it so here's -- >> the bottom sideline we're all talking about piers morgan, aren't we? >> i think that's part of the point. he gets more, sort of conversation and chatter -- >> i have one more piece of tape. the last bounce of this happened when mitt romney was doing interviews with local television stations. and the denver affiliate, denver cbs affiliate reporter sean boyd, gave this report about her sit down with the republican nominee. >> you were one of only four local reporters to get to talk to him. >> yeah. >> and what did you ask him? >> you know, i had about five minutes with him. we got through a fair amount of material actually in that five minutes. the one stipulation to the interview was that i not ask him about abortion or todd akin. >> who -- what reporter agrees to an interview in which you're

told you can't ask certain things? >> a local news reporter who wants to interview the president. >> that's right. >> or the potential president -- >> she shouldn't have done it, but i must say she had her cake and ate it, too. she got the interview and got to embarrass -- >> blasted him. >> governor romney. >> to be clear, people who -- so people understand how the journalism business works, the guests, candidate, politician, officeholder, businessman, can agree not to answer any question you ask. no comment, i don't want to go there, they can attack you for asking the question, but you don't sign away in advance your right to ask the question, i don't believe. >> that's right. and i think she very much wanted that interview, as you said. she's a local news reporter, trying to get the big interview. >> there's another way to handle it. this is, again, parts of that is these interviews, that's why they go directly to regional reporters. >> right. and skip over the white house press corps. >> a myth for decades that local reporters are stupid and easy. a lot of them -- >> that's true. >> i was a local news reporter -- >> imnot saying you were saying it. but the romney campaign -- >> they think it's going to be

softball questions? >> sure. they found in this reporter that she was neither stupid or -- >> to shaun boyd's credit she shared what the ground rules were, the romney campaign -- >> the others did not. >> okay. roger, lauren, nia, lynn, thanks for stopping bee at the arena this morning. up next, mitt romney's birther joke, paul ryan's ex-girlfriend. will the coverage of this campaign ever get back to the most pressing issues? stay with us. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal.

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we are here in tampa, if you're just joining us, at the republican convention which is going to get underway, weather permitting, any day now. joining us is kelly goth, political correspondent for theroot.com, and hugh hewitt, host of his own syndicated radio talk show. i want to play a clip of mitt romney speaking the other day in michigan and ask a question on the other side.

>> i was born at harper hospital. [ cheers] >> no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. [ laughter ] >> mitt romney was on your radio show just the other day, almost everyone in the media covered this and covered it as why is romney reintroducing the so-called birther issue. what's your take on that angle of the coverage? >> i thought it was misplaced. i had the governor on the talk show that afternoon, right after the michigan appearance. we talked about the jobs issue, the abortion issue, we talked about tampa. how has speech was going, ann romney's speech, the network's decision not to cover the first night. didn't even occur to me that that was an issue. i thought it was governor blagojevich -- it was classic gotcha journalism. talking about 8.3 unemployment, the smoking ruins of the obama presidency. they're chasing after this snow storm misplaced, bad journalism. >> gotcha journalism suggests to me that the media are set something kind of trap. the problem with the thesis is

that romney is the one who uttered the words, whether it was a joke or not. >> right. also you have to point out, too, that the conservatives have been pretty critical of the extremists in their own party, right? so i think in terms of covering the story, you kind of can't have it both ways, right, and say that it's not fair to paint all conservatives with this broad brush of extremists and then make a comment that's perceived as embracing some of those extremist comments. that's i think what made this somewhat newsworthy. if donald trump repeated it again, no one would have covered it, right? what made it interesting -- >> not no one. it's donald trump. let me turn to something that you wrote the other day, hugh, that caught my eye. you talked about how you thought the television networks i should say sticking it to the republicans -- this happened before the storm scrambled everybody's plans, by not covering the first night of the convention, that's when ann romney was going to speak. she's been moved to tuesday. it's been that way for a couple of cycles now where the broadcast networks, abc, nbc, cbs blow off the first day because they don't think there are ratings in it.

how is that -- and the same applies to democrats, how is that an example of bias? >> i think getting down to three hours of network coverage, one cycle or two, is shameful. this is -- whenever pbs comes up for funding, howard, we hear one thing. we hear that all those people out there that don't have cable can't watch, get news. what about all those poor people for whom we fund pbs that can't watch conventional coverage? this is a middle of a crisis. the country's coming together to watch an argument being made against the re-election of the president, argument being made for the election of mitt romney. and the network's blown off for reruns. they're licensed to -- institutioned. >> i think that's a strong argument. it may be dereliction of duty. i don't see how you could see -- let me get you in on this, that it's aimed at the republican party more than the democratic party. >> you can't. and actually this is where i think that republicans have a bigger gripe with the weather than with the media. that's actually turned out to be the running pattern here. this happened four years ago. >> if it was sunny skies --

>> it created problems. >> there was still going to be no broadcast network coverage on monday night. that's the decision the networks made a couple cycles ago. >> yes. although the weather rendered it a moot point. i don't hear them saying that's going to significantly wound them. in fact, they said the opposite. this is not going to affect us moving because of the weather. i don't understand how it's different if they lost a day because of coverage. >> because there still would have been coverage in newspapers, cable on, twitter. >> it will still be covered, there will still be guests on all the cable -- >> that's true. we talked earlier in the program about todd akin and the rape controversy. i raised the question of whether or not the media were unfairly putting this or shall we say dragging the presidential and vice presidential candidates into a controversy, dumb thing said by one candidate in missouri. your thoughts? >> i think it is an extraordinarily manipulative to try and tie todd akin to the national campaign. the president's statement, you didn't build that, has become the defining statement. if we saw the president's "you

didn't build that" statement as often as we see todd akin's statement, that would be itself a misapplication of time. but you're going end to up saying more about todd akin than are you about the president's blurting out what he really believes is the way the economy ought to operate. >> again, i think that would be a legitimate criticism of the media if it weren't for the fact that the -- excuse me, governor romney just picked the vice presidential candidate who's agreed on todd on, kin with some of his more extreme policies. >> be specific. paul ryan has the same position as todd akin, not in the outrageous comments he made about women not getting pregnant but in saying that abortion should be outlawed and there should be no exception for rape. >> right. so if that weren't on the table, i think he might be on to something. to say that it's completely beyond the pale for the media to cover it and to cover it to the degree they are, i think it's a stretch. >> let me turn to what you wrote on the root. you posed the question -- should we be talking about the fact that paul ryan, congressman from wisconsin, once earlier in his life had a black ex-girlfriend? what y but bring it up -- why

did you bring it up? >> i didn't bring it up. paul honda from cnn tweeted it. >> you wrote about it. >> i wrote about. there's been coverage it the column and not the fact that paul ryan volunteered the information in an vancouver. i think it's fascinating. the first major presidential party ticket candidate to have admitted to interracially dating. it says something about being part of enx. it's like him liking rage against the machine. i'm surprised people found it offensive or uncomfortable. >> here's what matters -- unemployment's 8.3%. it's never been below 8% when the president promised it would never be above 8%. the fact of the matter is this is a terrible economic situation. >> okay. to close -- are the media distracting us with all of these side controversies and circuses and sidepars and not focusing on the economic issues -- >> 100% yes. this country needs to get out of the ditch. >> akin raises an important issue that needed to be covered. the fact that people believe that women should not have abortions if they get raped. it's an issue that should be

covered. >> i would say that the campaigns are contributing the way that they are choosing to run attack politics. thank you very much for stopping by. after the break, more on the coverage of the convention here in tampa and a look at whyness a -- why abc is kicking "nightline" out of its time slot. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. >> announcer: meet tom, a proud dad whose online friends all "like" the photos he's posting. oscar likes tom's photos, but he loves the access to tom's personal information. oscar's an identity thief who used tom's personal info to buy new teeth and a new car, and stuck tom with the $57,000 bill. [tires squeal] now meet carl who works from the coffee shop and uses the free wi-fi. marie works from there too. she's an identity thief who used a small device to grab his wi-fi

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back here at the "tampa bay times" arena. joining us is eric deggans, critic for "the tampa bay times" and rachel sklar, founder of change the ratio. eric, this is your home turf. media are descending. i'm seeing stories, one on cnn, about strip clubs. is tampa bay the only city that has strip clubs? >> apparently if you read "salon" or "the village voice" or watched cnn, there have been a lot of stories about strip clubs. >> are you offended by that? >> i think it's a superficial, stereotypical look at florida. i have a post on my blog, the feed, pushing back. if you spend time here, and i

hope people take time to get outside the walls of this convention, you will find a really rich mixture of people that pretty much reflects the mixture of the country. >> rachel, i don't have a strip club question for you. >> i have no expertise. >> we'll move on. leaving aside the hurricane and the extent to which it is obviously impinging on the storylines here, 15,000 journalists here for a choreographed convention. when so many media people hungry for a morsel are together, do they create their own news? >> i think that we'll see. 2008 was different than now. and there was no -- there was twitter but not in a widespread way. there wasn't any instagram. everything is different now. like the unguarded moments are there to be captured. and i think we'll see a real something diversity of stories come out. and that might be the flip side of like reporting on anything, trying to differentiate yourself. but you know, the fact that you know that it's choreographed, i think the point is to try and find the real news underneath

and what it means. >> but in terms of the way in which that news is distributed, are we now moving more away from tv broadcasting to live streaming, to tweeting, to blogging? >> yeah, there's everything. and -- >> so it's a more digital experience for a lot of people who don't want to sit in front of the television for three hours a night. >> i think that we are seeing a silent experience. people are now following who they follow. and who -- they get the news that they want to see. so actually there's -- you know, there's an incredibly robust debate going on now. for example, but mitt romney's, you know, joke alluding to barack obama's birth certificate. and there's like a -- in the progressive media world, tons of interesting discussion about that really unpacking the racial implications of it. i think that's only being consumed by people who are specialed in that. >> i want -- interested in that. >> i want to get to "nightline." abc announcing that jimmy kimmell, hot young comic, going up against leno and letterman, that makes sense on a comedic level. but "nightline,"" venerable

television show, moving back an hour. take a look a little from each program. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. tonight the west is burning. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight we look at atheism in america. >> oftentimes people will -- [ applause ] >> come up to me and tell me, your show's on too late for me. you're going to need a new excuse now. like for instance, your show sucks. [ laughter ] >> starting in january, "nightline" "will be on after us. after that not much of change. >> eric deggans, the funny thing is that nightline was winning its time slot and still gets bumped out of the prime slot. >> exactly. this is all about potential. i think abc feels they can make a lot more money if jimmy kimmell is snfl thuccessful in slot. and it's about jimmy kimmell's maturation as a performer. the white house correspondents dinner, he will host the emmys this year. he had a contract reportedly where he asked for this time -- time slot switch. he has come into his own.

he wants to go up against letterman and leno. frankly, i think he's going to do well. >> i like kimmell, i get kimmell. but putting a new show on at 12:35 in the morning, isn't that close -- tantamount to canceling it? >> there could be. but there's so much with time-shifted viewing and dvr viewing on demand, on the web, that it -- this may just be what's trending. i actually think what's more interesting is how important 11:35 remains to all of these comedians when we're living in an age where the actually consumption of a lot of the this material happens way, you know, in other places, other times. >> let's be clear. this isn't ted cokoppel's "nightline," but it dealt with hard news. that is going to be lost. no knock on kimmell, but is there any part of you that says, gee, this is a shame? >> it is because "nightline" is a great show. we've been talking about the media environment. there are so many platforms on

line. obviously we have three 24-hour cable news channels that have programming up until 11:00 p.m. so can "nightline" offer something that we don't already have or is it about giving jimmy kimmell a chance to really make a mark in late night and abs to see make a ton of money? >> the cable news programs go past 11:00 p.m. sometimes reruns, sometimes live. that's an interesting point. when "nightline" started in 1980, it was an accident, an outgrowth of the iran yankee candle hosta-- iranian hostage crisis. before cnn. it didn't exist as much with the panopoly of news sources. >> it's sad when a hard news show doesn't work out or is deemed to not work out. in this case is bumped for something better. but there are a lot of opportunities here and hopefully this will be an opportunity for abc to do something with the "nightline" they have and turn it to into the "nightline" of the future. >> "nightline" is running at 9:00 p.m. beginning on fridays in march.

we can keep our fingers crossed that it does well. "20/20" has done well -- >> maybe jimmy kimmell will do hard news. >> i look forward to that. thanks for joining us. ahead, wolf blitzer has covered a few of these conventi conventions. we'll ask how the coverage has changed in a moment. [ male announcer ] this is rudy. his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches.

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join now here in tampa by a veteran of campaigns and conventions, cnn's wolf blitzer. you're going to be on air eight hours a day. how do you fill that time with a convention that's so heavily scripted as they all are, tightly choreographed. the weather seems to have taken care of that. >> i think it will be a hurricane pretty soon. that's going to dominate the news. zh >> cnn now reporting it's going to miss the tampa area. obviously rain but not a direct hit. is there a danger that cnn and other news networks are going to focus so much on the storm that it's going to overshadow mitt

romney's convention? >> the convention's not really starting until tuesday. they've delayed it a whole 24 hours. on tuesday, that could be a pig day because if it's a category 2 and it's up in the gulf of mexico and even if it hits alabama or the panhandle or whatever, there's going to be a lot of destruction and damage. a category 2 r, 20 -- 100-mile-an-hour winds. it's hard to party when there's devastation and destruction in alabama or wherever it is, wherever it winds up hitting. >> that's a political challenge for the gop. are we giving this storm more attention than it otherwise would receive? >> we're giving it a lot of attention because the convention is in this region. >> just wanted to get you on record. >> and you know what? for months, our producers and people who have been taking a look at tampa during hurricane season have been asking them the question, what if there's a hurricane at the time of the convention? i used to say, come on. >> what are the odds? >> what are the odds of that happening? you know what? sometimes it happens. sfwhoo what was the first

convention you covered? >> i've been with cnn almost 23 years. the real first one i did for cnn was 1996 when i was white house correspondent for cnn and bob dole and jack kemp for the republican team, bill clinton, al gore, the democratic team. i was the owpodium reporter at that time trying to grab people coming on and off the stage. it was pretty exciting. i do remember learning from maria shriver. she was working at nbc, podium reporter at that time. and i was really -- i was relative hi new at the game in television. and i could see she was getting all the good gets as they were coming off after their speeches or -- >> speeches, she's better looking. >> no, no, she had worked a long time in advance arranging. i didn't realize that you're supposed to spend weeks and months leading up to the podium -- i learned from that experience. and it help me a lot. >> but in 2012, it seems to me that four-day convention, almost like a relic in terms of sustaining interest as a tv. and of course a lot of it's

going to be covered online, tweeting, a big dramatic change from 1996 until now. >> yeah, a huge day. three days is plenty. the democrats have already decided to keep theirs three days. this was not a tough decision to move it to three days. i'm sure they would have liked four. the first night, three broadcast networks are going to televise anything anyhow. they were sensitive to that. if there's any danger at all to delegates, people coming here, they want to err on the side of caution. >> you have been getting a lot of attention lately for aggressive interviews, one with debbie wassermann schultz, pressing her on attacks she's made on medicare. you did one with donald trump in which he was sounding a bit redig husband on the birther issue. i wonder if you're becoming more opinionated and whether we'll see some of that in these next few weeks. >> i don't know if it's more opinionated but maybe a little more more forceful in making sure that if you hear something that clearly is wrong or a distortion, you challenge the guest. you do it in a polite and respectful way. that person, after all, is a guest on your show. but if you hear something that clearly is wrong, all the years

of your journalistic experience should come to the table, and you should point that out. >> is that a conscious decision on your part? >> yes. i've been doing it for a hong time, but i think it's a little more assertive right now. as you get older, you say to yourself, you know what? if i hear a guest -- and i'm going to be polite and respectful to that guest -- but if i hear a guest dissemble and say something wrong, i think we should point that out to our viewers that i'm not dumb enough to go along with that. >> i would never accuse you that. we'll watch you with great interest and next week in charlotte. wolf blitzer, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. still to come, a british tab hoid has a lofty expectation for running those naughty royal photos. really, rupert? don't! i've washed a few cupcake tins in my day... oh, so you're a tin expert now. whoa nelly! hi, kitchen counselor here. he's actually right... with cascade complete. see cascade complete pacs work like thousands of micro-scrubbing brushes to help power away tough foods even in corners and edges.

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if you really wanted to find pictures of prince harry cavorting naked in las vegas,

and i permanent sonally have no interest in seeing the crown jewels, they were obtained by the media. rupert murdoch's son, the tabloid saying the pictures were, quote, hard hi the acts of a man jealous hi guarding his privacy. that's true. the paper also said that the prince harry pictures are are a crucial test of britain's free press. come on. "the sun" ran them for the same reason all those american websites it, salaciousness sells especially if royalty is involved. so let's stop retending there's a more high-minded reason, shall we? that's it for this special convention edition from tam p. i'm howard kurtz. check us out next sunday morning when we'll be in charlotte for the democratic convention. you can go to itunes every monday and download this program if you miss any part of it. "state of the union with candy crow hiley cry"