Whether they are tuning into baseball, or the hit CBS show Survivor, or simply tuning out, one thing is for sure: Americans are avoiding the television coverage of the convention by the millions. "The main thing is that there is no news there," said Philip Klinkner, an associate professor of government at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. The conventions, Klinkner says, used to be a place to turn for meaningful public discourse about party issues and candidates, but now they "are just getting really boring.