HOWARD KURTZ writes that Kerry is experiencing a “reverse media bounce:”

Four years ago, the pundits trashed Al Gore’s convention speech. He sounded like a “vice president on speed,” Sam Donaldson said.

But then a funny thing happened. Gore shot up, by as much as 17 points, in Newsweek, USA Today and Washington Post polls. And the tone of the coverage was dramatically altered. The previous blather was inoperative — the convention was a smashing success!

Who ya gonna believe, journalists seemed to be telling themselves, your own eyes or the polls?

Now the opposite seems to be happening. Kerry’s tightly scripted convention drew lots of favorable coverage, especially his address (“I’ve never seen the man speak so well”–Joe Klein), and yet the Boston bash didn’t move the polling meter. Kerry may even have dropped a couple of points. So now the media — who ya gonna believe? — are in full reassessment mode.

Maybe it was a lousy convention after all!

They should have been reading more blogs.