by JL on July 28, 2008
Today’s assignment had me out in the burning, hot North Carolina sun, waiting for First Lady Laura Bush to show up and tour a national park. The press all congregated around noon (with the really nice White House press coordinators), we placed our gear in the first photo op area (to be scanned by Secret Service), and then basically waited around for a few hours in the murderous sun.
It seemed like we hung out for a few hours and then found ourselves running around all crazy for around 15 minutes, clamoring to get useable video of Lady Bush. All of this ‘camoring’ I refer to took place in 15′x15′ roped off areas that they quickly herded between - to keep us at a safe distance from her.
Also, we were informed on several occasions, “Do not take photographs of Mrs Bush from behind.” Seriously, they really harped on this one point quite a bit.
by JL on January 21, 2008
Somehow my last blog entry posted twice. Scary. I haven’t had a chance to check up on it though, because I’ve been back on the political beat. Last night found me down in Charleston covering the McCain campaign’s moves leading up to the GOP primary. We first caught up to him at a polling place on Saturday morning, and he got his ass MOBBED by the press. My reporter Mark managed to fire off this photo as the media swarm following McCain as he retreated back to his bus, “The Straight Talk Express.”
Seriously, I felt mobbed and I was with the media, so you know it had to be crazy. Want further proof that it was crazy? People in pig suits.
mccain_pigs.jpg
You know I can’t pass up the temptation to take a photo with mascots, even when I wasn’t exactly sure what these pigmen were all about. I think they might’ve been loosely connected to the Ron Paul people - not certain, though. I was sorta jealous that they were keeping warm in those piggy suits, although I’m sure they turned into big, sweaty rain sponges by mid-afternoon.
We eventually ended up in a make-shift media center at The Citadel, where McCain would later give his victory speech. There were way more media cameras than the campaign folks accounted for, so they ended up having to hurriedly construct an extension to the risers. I was kinda in a crappy spot, crammed between some local stations and the CNN talent cam. Although later on, my spot became prime real-estate when the the campaign staff decided to put a 50″ LCD monitor (for the teleprompter) in the middle of the risers - completely screwing all the national media in the center of the stage.
The rest of the night went rather smoothly, and it (naturally) ended with McCain being mobbed by the media as he made his way to the Fox News camera.
We decided to duck out at that moment and ninja edit a pkg for the newscast, which was thirty minutes out. Sadly, this will be just the beginning og my weekend’s political madness. More later!
