Barack Obama ended the Democratic National Convention, and made history, with a speech that got high marks from most (but not all) analysts -- but what many called his finest hour was marred, at the start, by an arrogant editorial decision by CBS News.

At the start of the 10 p.m. hour, as the biographical film began that served as Obama's official introduction, CBS decided to ignore it. Instead, it continued with its own reporting, after which Katie Couric cut to commercials. The Barack film was joined in progress afterward.

Meanwhile, everyone else covering the event, on broadcast as well as cable, showed the film from the start. CBS was the only news organization to make the call that the introductory film for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States was not worth showing in full.

CBS was wrong. And if it pulls the same trick by showing only part of John McCain's film next week, it'll be wrong again. The commercial broadcast networks have cut back on coverage so much already that they're making themselves obsolete -- but to ignore even a portion of a national political convention's main event, and deny its viewers the chance to see and assess that message, is an indefensible lapse in judgment.

Otherwise, there were no major gaffes or missteps during coverage of the final night of the Democrats' turn at bat -- and, given the stadium setting, a sports analogy is even more appropriate than usual. Former Vice President Al Gore's speech occurred long before the broadcast networks' prime-time window, but was given respectful coverage by outlets already offering coverage.

And as for reaction to Obama's speech, seldom was heard a discouraging word. Oh, there were a few, including one Fox News pundit, Juan Williams, who dismissed the speech as "more prose than poetry" and "more like a laundry list." But that definitely was a minority opinion, Even fellow Fox News analyst Bill Kristol, unimpressed by most speeches all week, called it "an actually impressive performance."

At CNN, David Gergen called it "less a speech than a symphony," admitted to being "deepy impressed," and said, "As a political speech, it was a masterpiece." On MSNBC, Chris Matthews said, "I've been criticized for saying he inspires me. To hell with my critics." And Pat Robertson, Buchanan, also on MSNBC, delighted the crowd listening to the post-speech analysis when even he, as a proud conservative, said of Obama's address, "That wasn't a liberal speech at all," and called it "a genuinely outstanding speech."

Monday, the Republicans take over. Stay tuned...