"The effect is particularly pronounced in the realm of public affairs. In an earlier age, millions of Americans often came together at one time to watch a political event. Now it happens much less often," he said.
Al Ortiz, an executive producer for CBS News involved with the network's scheduling of the conventions, justified the reduced coverage, saying the election process has changed over time.
"The drama and the contest are pretty much out of the way by Super Tuesday," he said.
"The parties have engineered this so that the first two nights of the conventions are more display, more theatrical, not breaking news like it once was," Ortiz said. "But rather than consign it to no coverage, we felt it would be responsible to cover it some."
As for the lack of public awareness of the GOP convention date, Ortiz laid the blame squarely on the public.
"It's the public's fault for declining interest in it," he said. "If you read a newspaper occasionally, you know when these things are happening."