Series of events: 9:15-10:23 a.m., Monday, July 12.
Sitting in the news meeting, we decide last minute to cover the small business lending address that Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is giving. It starts at 10. It is now 9:22. We are in the newsroom, 1325 G St. NW. He is at the Federal Reserve, 20th and C St NW. Not miles away, but we have 38 minutes to get there exactly on time, not even early like every journalist should be. Mistake number 1. Maybe not a mistake. Perhaps merely an opposing force.
We run out of the meeting to prepare the broadcast equipment. As I always say: Ugh. There are so many moving parts with broadcast. Camera; check. Tripod; check. Batteries; check. P2 card; check. Upper body strength; questionable. Opposing force 2.
With gear hoisted on our shoulders our editor confronts us. Is this important enough to miss critiques? What’s the story angle? Can we be back by Noon? It’s Bernanke! Speaking at the Federal Reserve! On what to do about small businesses! Which are struggling because they can’t get loans! And that isn’t good when small businesses provide the majority of job creation in the U.S.! The 6-minute conversation puts us at 9:32. Opposing force 3.
On the trip over we discuss the fact that we didn’t RSVP in advance for credentials. Opposing force 4. Nothing can be done about it now.
The Federal Reserve; 20th and C St.
They take my press ID.
I say nothing about the fact that I didn’t request credentials before now.
They take my mobile phone.
I walk through a detector.
My phone is not returned to me.
A cord telephone is placed in my hand.
Hello?
Full name.
Kate Tamba Howard.
Date of birth.
26 August.
Social security.
XXX XX XXXX.
I feel violated.
I just gave my social security number to a nameless female voice in the distance…
In a room full of other reporters who are eager to steal my identity.
This is cool; it’s the Federal Reserve.
It’s 10.
We get our bright yellow press passes that fit perfectly with my shooting partner’s jelly bean outfit. It’s an accent color to my dull blue button up and white skirt.
We sneak in, set up as quietly as possible and begin filming the panel discussion.
I love the camaraderie among broadcasters, shooters in particular. The big burley men always look out for the delicate women—pointing out a good spot for our camera, plugging our wires in. Not that we’re delicate, but there’s something to be said for lugging heavy equipment in a suit and heels in 100 degree weather, shooting your own story and then making sure your hair’s in place to report in front of the camera. Lucky guys, they get to wear jeans and T-shirts.
We miss Bernake by 5 minutes.
Opposing Forces: 1
Broadcast Team: 0
But hey, we’ll get a story out of it. You make due with what you got. That’s the first rule of journalism.
Check out Kate Howard’s video on the speech.
Unlike the wonderful world of print, you can’t just slap a quote in from his written speech and call it a day. As broadcasters, we are awarded the round, succulent donut package—we’ll lede and tag what Bernanke said and hopefully we can get away with not having the actual footage.
There is also that camaraderie, I mentioned earlier. We ask our fellow broadcasters who they’re shooting for and if there’s any way we can obtain their footage. In these cases, often the poor grad student role comes to the rescue.
But we wanted to turn a daily and in order to get the footage we’d have to go through a huge process that there just wasn’t time for. We managed to add a few contacts out of it, though.
Luckily for us the panel was well spoken and gave us a lot of good quotes. True, Bernanke is still missing, but it’s a story.