CNN got into the comic news business Saturday night at 10 with "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News." I like D.L. He seems smart, thoughtful and has a sharpness to his comic observations.

He's also wildly uneven when it comes to maintaining the funny. And so was his show.

All I have to say about Wednesday night's cable of coverage of the DNC is WILL THESE PEOPLE PLEASE SHUT UP?

Thanks to the endless prattle (particularly among ego-tripping MSNBC pundits), I nearly missed an unexpected barn-burner of a speech by John Kerry (which I managed to catch, in part, on CNN and C-SPAN). And I completely missed Tammy Duckworth's speech, which my girlfriend told me about after she listened to it on public radio while at work.

My advice to one and all is to watch it on C-SPAN tonight. I guarantee the electricity on stage is going to be a lot more interesting than the wind-powered commentary on the sidelines.

First of all, let's just state the obvious. The prospect of watching
daylong coverage of the Democratic National Convention on any of the
cable networks is just too soul-killing to consider.

Not gonna do it. In fact, after I finish this post, I'm turning my attention to HBO's new vampire series "True Blood" (my review runs in the Sept. 7 Arts & Living section).

Ah, but I digress. Of course, I tuned in Monday night, though way too early (before 8 p.m.) , as I quickly realized.