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Reporting From the Campaign Trail: 'Embeds' Look Back on '08
Posted:
11/17/09
During the 2008 presidential race, Bill Clinton likened them to spies.Campaign staffers, meanwhile, regarded them as bellwethers of the election.
But to the media outlets that hired them, the young reporters who traveled with presidential campaigns in 2008 – they called it "embedding" -- were an invaluable source of up-to-the-second news.
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At a George Washington University forum Tuesday night, former "embeds" and political staffers offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the often tenuous relationship between political campaigns and the people who cover them. The term "embeds" picks up on the nickname for war reporters who travel with military units, writing stories the troops sometimes love, and sometimes don't. The relationship between campaign reporters and staffers was much the same.
"You're never friends, but it's a really, really complicated relationship," said former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Jamie Smith. "They don't really know all the stuff that you're doing behind the scenes, and you don't really know all the stuff that they're doing behind the scenes."
For their part, the reporters described 20-hour work days filled with travel and fattening food, and the challenge of asking candidates hard questions – then having to sit next to them for hours on the campaign bus.
"Being a good journalist is about the . . . friendliness of your relationship with the campaign," said Adam Aigner-Treworgy, who covered Republican campaigns for NBC. "You need to be able to call them when you need an answer – and you need to have the campaign answer your phone calls."
Some reporters said they were disarmed by the access given to them by John McCain's campaign, but others had a different problem. Former Newsweek embed Nick Summers described one bitterly cold day leading up to the Iowa caucuses when Hillary Clinton, who had a chillier relationship with the press than McCain, unexpectedly boarded the campaign bus bearing hot coffee and bagels for reporters.
"The relationship was so bad that really no one said anything," Summers remembered. "It was such an alien thing to have her right there that nobody really piped up. And afterward, one reporter made a joke and said under his breath, 'Geez, does anybody want to go outside and warm up?' "
But in the end, Smith said, the relationship between embeds and campaigns hinged on mutual respect.
"What does bind you all, and the reason that you're all doing this 24 hours a day, is that reporters really want to make America as strong as possible," Smith said. "While you are not always in the best of relationships, fundamentally, that's where you link up."
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Alex Keefe
Alex Keefe got his start in journalism as a reporter and anchor at WVIK-FM, the National Public Radio station in Rock Island, Ill... moreRelated Articles
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Comments (2)
cphaed
9:34AM Nov 20th 2009
if you think about it, most of us live our lives conservatively!
we don't let our finances and our kids and our pets run amok!
why are we letting our elected officials in Washington run amok? why are they spending us into incomprehensible debt and why are they controlling our lives by social engineering via tax policy? and why are we just taking it? we can take back the power and money. we have to demand that Washington stop deficit spending, pay off the national debt, put the dollar back on the gold standard, audit The Fed and replace the IRS with a fairtax.org. then they can make whatever reforms their constituents want and need within those confines. it's their responsibility to keep our dollar and our constitution strong...that's it! nothing else! once the dollar is backed by gold, let the free markets and us decide what we choose to buy and how we chose to live!
we don't let our finances and our kids and our pets run amok!
why are we letting our elected officials in Washington run amok? why are they spending us into incomprehensible debt and why are they controlling our lives by social engineering via tax policy? and why are we just taking it? we can take back the power and money. we have to demand that Washington stop deficit spending, pay off the national debt, put the dollar back on the gold standard, audit The Fed and replace the IRS with a fairtax.org. then they can make whatever reforms their constituents want and need within those confines. it's their responsibility to keep our dollar and our constitution strong...that's it! nothing else! once the dollar is backed by gold, let the free markets and us decide what we choose to buy and how we chose to live!
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jack
10:08AM Nov 20th 2009
if medicare is cut i wont be able to keep up with my health care i pay monthly 96.40 for part b 35.00 for part d and 145.00 for added insurance that medicare does not cover ,also i still have to pay prescription and doctors co-pays.so tell me how is cutting medicare going to help me and millions of others on medicare?????????
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