Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumVanity Fair: "There Really Is Only One Story Right Now": Campaign Reporters Are Stuck in Limbo...
There Really Is Only One Story Right Now: Campaign Reporters Are Stuck in Limbo as the 2020 Race Gets Drowned OutWith America under quarantine, the boysand girlsare off the bus. Theyre now watching Joe Biden beam into CNN from his Wilmington rec room and fundraise via Zoom. Will the press corps be staring at screens through November?
BY TOM KLUDT MARCH 25, 2020
But one place Thomas didnt expect to be covering a Biden fundraiser in late March was from his Washington, D.C. home. After enjoying the warm spring weather with his children on his patio, Thomas ventured inside to fulfill his duties as Biden pool reporter, a rotating assignment in which one journalist covers a campaign event for the broader press corps, usually because of space constraints in, say, a hotel ballroom or donors home. Under normal circumstances, Thomas would have scanned the room to identify notable attendees; for Fridays virtual fundraiser, held on the Zoom video conference app, he studied the list of participants, which included Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski. And because a pool report isnt complete without a little color, Thomas made sure to note that the sound of a barking dog occasionally could be heard in the background while Biden addressed donors over the livestream. What makes covering the race so much more difficult now is that your vantage point is only what can fit on your screen, Thomas said.
Such is the rigidity that now defines the life of a reporter on the 2020 beat, left to cover a campaign that feels as if it is in suspended animation. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust much of the country into isolation, and upended the professional lives of millions. There really is no one for whom the era of social distancing has been a normal experience, but the abrupt shift has been particularly jarring to see unfold within the context of this years presidential raceboth for the candidates and the journalists assigned to cover them. Traditional campaign events have, at least for the time being, been replaced by livestreamed remarks beamed out of the candidates homes. The campaign trail now runs through Joe Bidens living room, said Politicos Marc Caputo. Thats where this campaign is being waged now.
One recurring lamentation after the 2016 election was that the political media, largely based on the coasts, had missed the Donald Trump phenomenon because they were disconnected from the rest of America, perhaps too tethered to Twitter or reliant on Republican and Democratic establishment sources who didnt see an insurgency coming. And that critique has been lobbed even after journalists racked hotel points crisscrossing the country with Trump and Hillary Clinton, getting a ground-level perspective that, for the immediate future, is obscured.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/campaign-reporters-are-stuck-in-limbo-as-the-2020-race-gets-drowned-out
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
bucolic_frolic
(47,018 posts)What do we get for all the money spent on politics? Division, frustration, anger. We donate large sums of money, I daresay it's a drain on some households so that people who are paid far better than 75% of the population can jet all over the country and ride in limousines and tell us they are celebrities as they go on all the talk shows. YOU getting any limousine rides?
Half the reporters are excellent, half are dopey, some have Ivy League degrees but can't use the English language properly. Maybe it's the focus on star power, I find the smarter ones are among the oldest. The youngsters are doing the leg work and paid to look good, sound good, but don't say anything smart it might damage your career.
This system is in need of some change.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hestia
(3,818 posts)But one place Thomas didnt expect to be covering a Biden fundraiser in late March was from his Washington, D.C. home. After enjoying the warm spring weather with his children on his patio, Thomas ventured inside to fulfill his duties as Biden pool reporter, a rotating assignment in which one journalist covers a campaign event for the broader press corps, usually because of space constraints in, say, a hotel ballroom or donors home. Snippage
This may actually be a great thing. At least now we know how each talking head "reporter" all say the same things on different channels. People can hear and see with their own eyes, without being told to not believe either.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Yes, I also don't think we lose a lot by the reporters bored and gossiping with each other as they witness the same delivery in town after town and then regurgitate corporate-sanctioned groupthink for us.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden