The Paw Print

By Elena Whitford, Arts and Culture Editor

Members of the Paw Print’s editorial board were lucky enough to secure press passes to cover the DNC – an honor that put us together with the likes of Washington Post reporters, radio hosts, and cable news anchors. But as we quickly found out, at such a prestigious political event, all press coverage is not created equal. 

The differences first became clear in the days leading up to the convention. The rest of the Paw Print staff and I received “orange passes” that permitted access to the high-up 300 level and limited areas on other floors. That is, we weren’t able to access the coveted floor where reporters could get an interview with Democratic party stars. 

On the day of the convention, I got to my seat and looked down at the crowd. The view was good, but clearly not as much so as a higher-level pass would give me. Next to my area, an announcer faced a camera and spoke in Russian. It appeared that the third floor was, as for the Paw Print, the best seating this news company could secure. Meanwhile, well-known news networks like Fox and NBC and more prestigious international media outlets like the BBC had private boxes directly facing the stage.

One advantage of my seating area was that I was in the press section – in other words, I had the chance to talk to other reporters seated nearby. It turned out that each had come to the DNC for a different reason.

Stella Seitz, a high school student who flew out from California to attend the convention, said her path to Chicago was one mostly of luck. “I applied for a press pass on a whim a few months ago and was really surprised that I was able to secure one,” she said. “I was hoping that I would be accompanied by other reporters on my high school newspaper, but I only received one so I’m here reporting alone.”

Meanwhile, Kyle Denis, a music reporter for Billboard, has been “writing recently about the Top 40 crossover with this political campaign. I wanted to see how that manifested itself at the convention.” 

Michael Shure, a founding member of the Young Turks progressive news commentary show and former Chief Political Correspondent for Al Jazeera America, said he came to the DNC to “do some of the reporting on what the different candidates are saying, but also some of the issues that are especially appealing to progressives.” 

Some noted that there were organizational issues with this year’s convention. Shure said, “The RNC, every year that I’ve done it, is more organized than the DNC,” while Denis added, “Night one ran really late and they couldn’t keep the crowd under control when it came to cheering. But everything was run phenomenally by night two.”

And what do all these journalists recommend for someone just starting out in their political reporting career? Shure had cautious advice for new journalists. “What I think is most important is that you not aim too high in your first job,” he said. “Use that as a place to jump off from, rather than to jump off in.”

Seitz said that organization is key. “Those little things like applying for temporary floor passes and other credentials early on, so I can go into other areas and access new sources and new people, are really important.”

This leads to some interesting ideas about who gets access to what. Even though Seitz applied early for credentials, her floor pass application was denied for all but one day. As a result, she told me, it was more difficult for her to obtain a good story. When more established media outlets are the ones who get access to the more important areas, the public misses out on the diversity of stories that could emerge if smaller newspapers were to fully cover the DNC as well.