GOODY TWO SHOES: For This We Sent You To J-School?
Columbia Journalism Review’s Justin Peters gives an accounting of what some of the 15,000 journalists attending the Democratic National Convention were up to:
† 14,000 are wearing terrible suits.
† 7,500 aren’t doing much at all. This isn’t surprising. Only a small number of reporters actually have a reason to be here. The rest are conventioneering - seeing old friends … brandishing their press passes at all comers, looking for free things, and spending about 14 percent of their time trying to rustle up enough stories to justify their presence to their editors. …
† 4,021 are smugly bad-mouthing the convention and its participants in their story ledes …
† 2,294 are bitching about only having perimeter press passes. The press corps is divided into four levels of access—perimeter, arena, hall, and floor. Arena, hall, and floor passes are allowed to enter the Pepsi Center. Those with perimeter passes are restricted to the parking lot. …
† 1,026 are drunk. This is as it should be.
† 500 don’t have credentials, but are trying desperately to get them. …
† 340 are confused about how to find the proper press office inside the Pepsi Center. …
† 150 are in the CNN Grill. …
† Sixty-two are enjoying massages.
† Seven of them are having their photographs taken with Captain Morgan, the rum-loving pirate who, for some reason, was credentialed into the convention.
And they will again be wearing terrible suits while doing much of nothing except scrounging for free vittles and memorabilia at the GOP Convention in St. Paul – unless Michael Moore gets his wish for Hurricane Gustav to pound LA hard enough to put the kibosh the Repub shindig.
As of now, the McCain campaign, party leaders and convention organizers are taking it day-by-day, but cancelled Monday’s program with only an abbreviated session scheduled from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm ET to constitute the convention, certify the delegates and adopt the party platform. Monday’s speakers were to have included President Bush, Vice President Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT).
When the Gustav made landfall at Cocodrie, LA, about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, around 10:30 am it had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm. Fortunately, the brunt of the storm passed to the West of the city, and some of the speeches that were cancelled may be for rescheduled later in the week depending on conditions in the storm-struck states – as well as on developments relating to what is now Tropical Storm Hanna.
The Boston Globe describes the significant shift in the tone and purpose of the GOP gathering as being “without parallel in American politics”:
In a video link from St. Louis, McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee, said it was time “to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action … reaching out with our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster.” He called on conventioneers, assembling here for what was supposed to be a four-day party celebration, “to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats and say, Americans we are with you.” His remarks dovetail with the convention's overarching theme of “Country First.”
The McCain campaign and convention organizers are also organizing a hurricane relief effort, “Serving A Cause Greater Than Self.” The Globe notes that the truncated convention “may deprive the Republicans a major showcase for the party's nominees” but also “provides McCain an opportunity to lead his party during a national humanitarian effort.”
As The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes: “The storm could thrust McCain, too, into the sort of commander-in-chief role that his campaign believes can win him the election. If McCain looks presidential - meaning not partisan - over the next few days, voter perception of him could be altered significantly.” And Obama will seem even more lightweight in comparison when Americans recall his acceptance speech extravaganza (video).
Sponsors of major party events for delegates and the media have followed McCain’s lead. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States quickly transformed the ritzy theme of its “Spirits of Minneapolis” party tonight to “The Spirits of the Gulf Coast,” and announced that proceeds will be donated the Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund. As others follow suit, wanna bet that at least half the journalists who planned to “cover” the GOP convention (that is to say, swill free booze) will suddenly realize they have pressing business back at the office?
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