Critic's corner

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Robert Bianco

*The Democratic Convention kicks off tonight in Denver. You'll find complete coverage on PBS and cable news, but not on the Big Three broadcast networks, which insist that the events have become scripted exercises in public relations and are no longer newsworthy.

Compared to what? Deal or No Deal? High School Musical: Get in the Picture? How I Met Your Mother? Please. Once every four years, America's two major political parties gather to state their case to the people they serve. The networks used to think providing them time to do so on the airwaves that still, supposedly, belong to the public was in the public interest. Sadly, that practice, along with the concept of "public interest," has gone out of style. (On TV, 13B)

*Watch the convention and set a DVR...