From WNYKRs, in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield. And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This convention week, it was hard to tell what was the greater subject of revelation. The Democratic nominees were the tortured psyches of the media. The lamentation started last Saturday when the Associated Press ran a piece about the press corps complaining about the lack of portagons, then followed reports about the cramped working conditions and the elaborate past system, and throughout, the media noted with stoic distaste that there would surely be no news at this event, but they, the brave, the true, the many, would soldier on and flood

the zone, even if the networks would hardly cover it. But cover it, they did. If by it,

you mean everything but what the long line of speakers actually said from the podium. On TV,

at least, there was but scarce commentary on the substance of the speeches.

Unlike much of the public, the jaded reporters had heard it all before, and it bored them.

What fascinated them were the big questions of these nervous times.

They were ensnared by imponderables like these.

How would Teresa Heinz-Carrie handle the role as First Lady?

Would she be more reserved like Laura Bush or more outspoken like Hillary Clinton?

Um, I think more like Hillary.

Should this picture carry in a laboratory jumpsuit be compared to this one? Dukakis in a helmet.uit. Be compared to this one.

Dukakis in a helmet.

Many people are asking that question today.

I don't think so.

Ron Reagan.

Wait a minute.

Isn't he a Republican?

I don't know.

I got to tell you, Steve, I watched a feed yesterday when Howard Dean was speaking in Florida,

and he is still an angry man.

Do you think that that same kind of Bush-hating anger could defunders? when Howard Dean was speaking in Florida and he is still an angry man.

Do you think that that same kind of bush-hating anger could deflate the Kerry campaign the very same way it destroyed Howard Deans?

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