Back during my sportswriting days, it was pretty easy to complain about some of the job’s annoyances.
Such as the lousy media meals, like the kind I used to have covering the Florida-Georgia college football game in Jacksonville every year.
Or the crummy sightlines of certain press boxes, such as where the Washington Commanders play.
Or how hard it was to get to the NHL arena outside of Ottawa or the long lines for buses at the Olympics or the cramped work spaces at old Yankee Stadium.
Whenever I said such things out loud, I usually got the same response from readers:
Shut up, will ya?
I understand that. Truth is, no one wants to hear anyone bellyaching about what they have to do when they do their jobs, especially when that job is covering something fun, interesting and/or relevant.
Which brings me to this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Semafor’s Max Tani wrote, “The Democratic National Convention — off to a smooth start by all outward metrics — has also featured logistical headaches, like long lines, bad internet connections, expensive price tags, and limited access to the floor, leaving many of the 15,000 credentialed media grumbling, and their representatives openly battling convention organizers.”
Tani reports that the Standing Committee of Correspondents, which represents most major American news organizations, has expressed concerns to the DNC for months about press access, including reduced workspace, and has advocated for more room for print journalists.
Tani went through some of the specifics, but then astutely wrote, “Is there any lamer story than the media whining about access? No description of waiting in lines or searching for a spot on the ground to file a story is as annoying as it feels to do those things.”
For the record, Tani notes, “Democratic National Convention officials emphasized that the event is no cost to press, and that there is plenty of workspace for journalists in areas adjacent to the arena. They also noted that the number of credentials are in line with past conventions.”
Also, for the record, I checked in with Louis Jacobson from Poynter’s PolitiFact, who is in Chicago for the DNC. He told me the lines to get in through the media entrance weren’t too bad (about 45 minutes on Tuesday), and added, “As far as access, I’m not sure I’ve noticed anything. You can still talk to whoever you want on the floor.”
However, Tani gets to a deeper point, which is the relationship between the press and the Democratic party. Tani writes, “The old school news media that Democrats used to need to get their message out is no longer their only option. The DNC has made a serious, deliberate effort to make room for hundreds of content creators and influencers. These newcomers have gotten coveted passes to the convention floor and workspace in the DNC’s new creator lounge and creator platform.”
Ultimately, as Tani notes, the conventions are television events. Democrats and Republicans both are more concerned about how the speeches, the performances, the show are coming off to a national audience watching from the comfort of their homes — whether it be on their TVs, laptops or phones. What the audience sees of the convention is more critical than what they don’t see behind the scenes from those covering it.
In the end, journalists, no matter how annoyed and frustrated they might be at times, are professional enough to do their jobs well and fairly regardless of how long they stand in line and how far away they are from the stage.
But …
Tani does leave his readers with this point: “… the last days of the Biden administration — when carefully-managed access concealed a president’s waning capacity to campaign — served as a reminder that whiny-sounding complaints are one line of the defense of a free press, if a particularly grating one.”
Notable pieces as the Democratic National Convention continues in Chicago this week …
More layoff news
The latest media company to have layoffs: Time magazine. It is cutting 22 jobs across various departments, including editorial, technology, sales and marketing, as well as Time Studios.
In a memo to staff, Time CEO Jessica Sibley said, “Like our peers, we continue to face significant challenges — from heightened competition for decreased advertising budgets to drastic shifts in consumer behavior, changes to search and social algorithms, and overall economic uncertainty. We are making changes now across our business to protect against this period of transformation and unpredictability in the media industry.”
Sibley did add hope that the company will continue to have good journalism, writing, “We will guide our work to elevate and cover leaders at every level; holding up and holding accountable the leaders who are transforming our world; inspiring aspiring leaders. We will also provide journalism that serves these present and future leaders. We will focus especially on the areas of leadership where we are having success today: Climate, AI and Health.”
More tributes
More tributes are coming in for talk show host Phil Donahue, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 88.
Geraldo Rivera, who had his own television talk show from 1987 to 1998, called Donahue the most important talk show host ever. He told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” “He invented the genre. … He was the first one to recognize that the home audience, the audience at home during the day, the caregivers, the homemakers, were interested in the world, that they had very serious notions.”
Rivera said that because of Donahue, talk shows hosted by Rivera, Oprah Winfrey, Regis Philbin and Sally Jessy Raphael were possible.
Raphael told Vargas that Donahue tapped into the female audience and respected them, adding, “The thing about it was he liked women, and that was at a time when there weren't many men that we thought liked us.”
Another job for Greeny
