From WNYKR's in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Cue the music.

On Monday, the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Denver.

If all goes as planned, everything will happen on cue.

The following week, the Republicans convene in Minneapolis-St. Paul, same deal.

Some 15,000 journalists are expected to attend each convention.

But why?

It's been more than 30 years since the last nomination was contested,

and even the vice presidential picks are announced in advance.

So barring injury, insanity,

or acts of God, no news will be broken. Cue the balloons. And now, cue the discussion about

how predictable the conventions are. Jack Schaefer is Slate's editor at large and press box columnist. He's calling for a press

boycott of the conventions. Jack, welcome back to the show. Hey, good to be here. Isn't there an

argument to be made for being there simply so that we can question the party talking points,

analyze them, criticize them? Sure, but you don't need 15,000 reporters to do that.

And according to Forbes magazine, that's going to be the attendance.

This is a little bit like the United States invading Grenada.

You don't need several carriers, bombers, thousands of infantry to do a job that could

probably be, you know, contracted out to the Kelly girls.

I'm not calling for an absolute boycott.

...