Parties change, coverage doesn't

In the interest of fairness, the major TV networks will cover the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., much as they covered the Democratic Convention in Denver. Again the local broadcast affiliates will pop in for an hour at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, locally on CBS' WBBM Channel 2, NBC's WMAQ Channel 5 and ABC's WLS Channel 7. That's when the major speeches figure to take place.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney are scheduled to talk Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani on Tuesday, Cindy McCain and the vice-presidential nominee on Wednesday and Sen. John McCain on Thursday.

Otherwise, the major networks will farm out comprehensive coverage to their cable news siblings, such as MSNBC and the Fox News Channel, which along with CNN will boast gavel-to-gavel coverage. Yet that will come with an abundance of news talk and analysis while the actual tedious business is being conducted during the day.

PBS will cover the convention gavel-to-gavel in prime time starting at 7 p.m. each day on WTTW Channel 11, which also will air a local "Chicago Tonight" wrap-up and analysis program nightly at 10.