NEWSWATCH: The Pushy Guest in the Hall Takes Over

NEWSWATCH/Thomas Griffith

Television has no duty to make a convention more interesting than it really is, Eric Sevareid philosophized on the air one dull evening last week. His boss, Dick Salant, president of CBS News, had already said precisely that in his instructions to CBS's sizable army of anchor men, cameramen, and floor reporters wearing pointy-headed antennas. Good professional counsel by both men, but hardly how the networks, in their commercial heart of hearts, felt about it.

For the only real contest at the convention—the only passionate one involving money, reputation and suspense —was...

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