Earlier in my career I spent several years covering the British political conventions.

They're tedious, depressing affairs held in a variety of faded seaside towns -- Bournemouth, Brighton and -- worst of all -- Blackpool.

My abiding memory of that time is spending countless hours in smoke-choked hotel bars trying to persuade pissed delegates to appear on TV or radio the next morning...and then hammering on their doors at dawn because they were hung over and had slept through their alarm call.

No news stories of any significance ever emerge from the conferences -- they're entirely predictable set-pieces.

Try telling that to CNN.

In a breathless press release the network promises "immediate, up-close reporting of the Democratic National Convention" featuring all the latest gimmicks, including:

A "Ringside" set (gasp!)
CNN's Election Express mobile newsroom (wow!)
"BlogWatch" (yawn!)
"Delegate-Cams" (what?)

CNN demonstrates how the way TV covers sport and politics is converging.

I recently read Long Bomb. It's a book about how wrestling boss Vince McMahon and NBC teamed up to create the ill-fated XFL football league and tried to camouflage a mediocre sporting product with the latest technological gizmos. It failed miserably.

The similarities with CNN's convention coverage plans are startling.