Well, all of my ideas for blogging in the spin room when I actually got there and realized just how much work I needed to do for the TV part of my job. It’s the morning after, and I am still pumped after the debate. I wanted to go over my time in the debate spin room.
I arrived on the Belmont campus around 9:30 yesterday morning. After a month and a half of nothing but sunshine, of course it had to pour buckets yesterday. When your live truck is parked about a hundred yards from the media tent, you spend a good deal of time trudging back and forth to it. I was not a happy camper about the rain. Almost immediately after arriving, we started to collect elements for the 5 and 6. My task for the early shows was to talk about debate prep, candidate walk throughs etc. Our booth in the media tent was probably the best in the house: right by the front door and near Fox News and NBC. That gave me a lot of access to the people who were interviewing for those two networks. After McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds walked off the Fox set, I was immediately ready to grab him for an interview. It was more or less the same with Obama spokesperson Linda Douglass.
I wrote here of my last debate experience, which was one of my first assignments EVER as a reporter. Eight years ago, I was overwhelmed. This year, I was not. The crowds were still there. Everywhere you turned, there were national media personalities and politicians. Here’s who I saw in the media tent: Mitt Romney, Claire McCaskill, Fred Thompson, Andrea Mitchell, Hannity and Colmes, Terry Moran, Dean Reynolds, Major Garrett, Kelly O’Donnell, Lee Cowan and Shepard Smith. A lot of the network big guns were inside the debate hall. We local types don’t get that kind of access on debate day.
Connected to the huge media tent was a food tent that drew rave reviews. According to a colleague, cooks made omelets to order for breakfast. They served us wrap sandwiches, a really good local mixed greens salad, potato salad and banana pudding for lunch. Dinner was also really, really good. Smoked BBQ turkey, honey baked ham, potatoes au gratin, the Belmont salad, and Jack Daniel’s Pecan pie. There was plenty of beer on hand, courtesy of Anheuser-Busch, but it seemed like only the national and international journalists were imbibing.
After the debate, it was a free for all. Campaign surrogates started piling in the moment the debate ended, and they were immediately swarmed. Police were trying to keep the crowds away from the door, but everyone was jockeying for the best camera position. Microphones were everywhere. For our late newscast, we relied on live interviews. That means, you have to find someone interesting and publicly known, and convince them to wait about 5 minutes with you. You always want to have someone good at the top of the ten. Marc Stewart and I were both in the tent. We had decided to split duties early on. I was going to take Democrats, he would take Republicans. We would both get two. That way, we would have a balanced view on our newscast. I was able to snag Rep. Jim Cooper as he walked through the door. Marc did the same with Rep. Marsha Blackburn. I really have to hand it to our Assistant News Director Mike Todd, who was able to corral both Harold Ford Jr. and State Rep. Vicki Harwell for our second hits. We did taped interviews with the governor, Howard Dean, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson for other newscasts.
You know, I’ve covered a lot of major events over the past years. There’s still nothing like the spin room. The late newscast was honestly the fastest 30 minutes of news I’ve ever done. We walked away from Belmont feeling very satisfied with our coverage and tired from hours of hard work.
