Wednesday's über long musings, part two

Today’s Speakers:

Wally Podrazik, DNCC Director of Media Logistics:

Wally’s speech — a history of media coverage of the conventions since 1908 — was probably best tailored to students who haven’t already taken a class called “History of American Journalism.” (However, I’ve got to say: his frequent reference to the crucial role of the press at conventions definitely pumped up my J-school student ego.)

Podrazik was definitely a media man — a rapid speaker with slick hair and a slick suit. He reminded me of a game show host (in a good way) — minus his cartilage ear piercings. Incidentally, I’ve never been so thrilled to see a man with semi-unconventional body art. I did a little victory dance inside; mom always told me the couple extra holes in my ears and the ink on my skin would kill me if I ever wanted a professional job. Maybe she was wrong? Podrazik’s certainly ain’t doing half bad.

Travis Dredd and Cameron Moody, Deputy CEOs for inside and outside the convention hall, respectively:

These two have lived in Denver for an entire year, preparing for the convention. ‘Nuff said. Wait — maybe not.

These are the kind of guys who get overlooked during convention time, but the sheer amount of time and energy they (and their Republican counterparts, I’m sure) pour into these conventions is flabbergasting. Dredd coordinates everything inside the convention hall — from contracting Colorado union workers to build the sets to coordinating media logistics for the 15,000+ journalists who’ll storm the Pepsi Center come Monday (and Invesco come Thursday). Moody oversees virtually every microscopic detail you could conceive of outside the actual convention hall — security, finding hotels with adequate rooms and meeting space for every state delegation, and the all-important campaign credentials, among other things.

Honestly, I don’t have a whole lot to say as far as reflection goes. I just wanted to give these two some props for work that, at least in the mainstream press, goes largely unrecognized.

The one, the only: Tom Reed, legendary Washington Post reporter

God, I love a Libertarian. I’m far from one myself, but I swear, I think these guys and gals are tailor-made to have killer senses of humor. Maybe the whole “3-P” thing (believing American liberties should preclude legislation over Pot, Porn and Prostitution) puts them in a better mood than most politicians.

I could tell Reed wasn’t particularly interested in boring the non-journalism majors in the program with reporter war stories or screeds about media principals and ethics. Instead, Reed offered what only the most seasoned of campaign reporters could: an insightful chat, punctuated with priceless anecdotes, that’ll probably stick with me ‘til the day I die.

I appreciated Reed’s talk, in particular, for three reasons: because he’s downright hilarious, because he reminded me about one of the program’s most fascinating readings, and most importantly…he inadvertently pushed me along on my goal of deciding what the heck I’m doing after I graduate.

Hilarity: The man’s held basically every campaign-related post you can think of, both in the U.S. and abroad. Given how frequently MU’s journalism professors warn about how political biases endanger objective journalism, hearing Reed offer utterly uncensored opinions about candidates and races he’s covered (including borderline bigoted comments on Korean elections) was zen-like.

Though he spent a few minutes touting the virtues of foreign electoral process — particularly Great Britain’s — Reed freely admitted he prefers covering foreign campaigns not because of the politics, but because he doesn’t give a hoot. (“Who cares which (Korean) Kim wins?”)

He mocked candidates who invariably make identical speeches and offer identical answers to reporters’ identical questions 7 or 8 times a day. He joked about covering “the next President of the United States” back in ’88, when it looked like hell would freeze over before Dukakis would lose the election.

But beyond his humor, Reed offered true gems… bits of advice and insight far too numerous to mention here.

Ties to the readings: I don’t even care if Reed forced himself to do this, but every time he referred to arbitrary, hypothetical candidates and officials, he referred to them by “she.”

Even if we hadn’t read an essay called “Cultural Barriers to the Female Presidency,” I’d have noticed. “She.” Oh, the power of one word.

As “Cultural Barriers” pointed out, there are enormous intrinsic societal factors preventing a woman from shattering the greatest of all glass ceilings. Complex factors abound, from the heightened scrutiny of female candidates’ appearances to the traditional soldier/citizen concept of an American “hero.” But thanks to history, force of habit and perhaps overt sexism, one of the thickest panes of glass looming over a future female president’s head is the fact that when most of us talk about arbitrary presidential (or for that matter, any) candidates, we choose “he” over “she.” So kudos, Mr. Reed, for breaking the stereotype.

Helping me decide what to do with my life: Two quotes from Reed are really all you need to get the gist…

Re: the “good old days” of campaign and convention coverage, when reporters trashed airplanes while on board with candidates and wrote a maximum of two articles a day: “This is one of those things when you say, ‘it’s really not right they’re paying me to do this.’”

Re: today, when media organizations cart dozens of reporters to cover pre-ordained conventions on 24-hour news cycles: “Now, it’s not fun.”

Maybe Reed’s just nostalgic for the good old days, but it sounds like political coverage ain’t what it used to be. It’s not, I think, as glamorous as I once imagined it to be.


Goal Progress:

Haven’t met any of my personally sought-after candidates, officials or Larry King-types yet, but I’m starting to think I’ve already accomplished my goal of discovering whether I find politics fascinating enough to pursue a graduate degree. (The answer is yes.) I’m giving it some time, but I think I may be honing in on an answer on my first goal, too. (Could I really abandon journalism? I’m starting to think it’s a possibility.)
As for the schmoozing, I suck. But I’m working on it.