It probably won’t be enough to help its ever-tanking ratings, but CNN is literally carving out a high-profile presence at the Republican Convention. It’s setting up one of its CNN Grills, a TV studio-restaurant-bar hybrid, in the first floor of the parking garage alongside the Tampa Bay Times Forum. You can’t get much closer to the convention floor and still be outside the Forum.
This uber high-traffic hangout will be home to morning political programs as well as special reports and an ad hoc, late-night interview show hosted by Piers Morgan. But most notably, CNN will be highlighting a group of undecided voters it will bring in throughout the week. Explains CNN Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist: “At the end of the day, the political convention is really for the party faithful, but the people who decide this election will be undecided voters from a handful of states like Florida.”
OK, we get that. In the abstract. The question is who, barely nine weeks removed from the election, truly remains “undecided”? You don’t have to believe that the incumbent is an alien socialist or the challenger a cult member who loves firing people to perceive significant candidate differences.
Maybe these resident “independents” have recently regained consciousness. Or perhaps they have an agenda like everyone else involved–and have been holding out for CNN Grill exposure.