WASHINGTON – In the moments leading up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Tuesday, I felt a tinge of journalistic unease.
This was my first time covering a joint meeting of Congress, those gloriously ceremonial addresses in which most of the 435 members of the House and the 100 senators crowd into the House chamber to hear sometimes memorable, often too-long remarks from presidents and world leaders.
Before the first of what would be an hour-long wave of standing ovations, I turned to a journalist on my left and asked, “What are we supposed to do?”
Do we stand when Netanyahu arrives? Do we sit? Do we follow the lead of the members of Congress? What is the protocol in the House of Representatives’ press gallery?
My experience as a reporter told me to sit in my seat and not clap. My intuition told me the Israeli media contingent to my right might not do the same. It was a strange intuition, but something about the excited looks, the fervent questioning, the eagerness to get a closer look over the balcony kept me on alert.
My intuition proved true. As Netanyahu made his way down the aisle toward the podium to thunderous applause, the visiting Israeli journalist to my right stood, pointed to a man on the House floor and started to clap and smile with great vigor.
I glanced over my left shoulder, then over the right. I saw a smattering of other journalists clapping in the gallery. I felt vindicated about my hunch, but also squeamish. This is not what I learned in journalism school.
The experience brought to mind the classic quote from the movie “A League of Their Own.” Tom Hanks’ character incredulously yells at one of his female softball players, “There’s no crying in baseball.”
There’s no clapping in journalism.
Both the Senate and House galleries are called “working” galleries, and there are strict rules forbidding any outward display of emotion, including clapping. I wondered whether that’s the case everywhere so I sought guidance.
Ori Nir, Americans for Peace Now spokesman and a long-time reporter for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, said clapping and cheering from the Israeli press is unusual. Nir said he knows a lot of the Israeli press who flew in for Netanyahu’s visit. He described them as “professional, cynical journalists who would know better.”
He theorized Netanyahu’s staff or officials from the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee may have made their way to the House gallery.
According to Nir, Netanyahu’s passionately warm welcome from Congress (I counted 24 standing ovations during the speech) would never happen in the Israeli Knesset. “You would be skewered throughout your speech by heckles and comments.”
Bob Steele, director of the Janet Prindle Ethics Institute at Depauw University, said all journalists need to be aware of two things: the protocol of wherever they’re reporting from, and the principles that guide their actions. “Ideally journalists do not actively participate in an event they are covering,” Steele said.
Steele said a principle to not show favoritism, for instance, doesn’t mean a journalist should be disrespectful if a situation calls for polite clapping or standing. At White House press conferences, reporters stand when a president enters the room. But, Steele added, the appearance of some degree of independence is crucial and “active perceived support of a politician” may jeopardize that.
As I walked back to the newsroom and absorbed the experience of the over-exuberant Congress and sporadically partisan press, I thought back to my first journalism job.
I occasionally covered the Portland Trail Blazers and my alma mater University of Oregon Ducks basketball team for Oregon Public Broadcasting. I realized early on that my fandom must be checked at the door.
In 2007, I covered the Ducks all the way to the NCAA Elite Eight in St. Louis. My seat directly behind the Ducks’ bench meant I was on television across the nation. A friend texted me and said I looked bored.
That made me smile. I was doing my job. No clapping in journalism.
In Washington those rules apply as well. If you’re at a hearing or press conference, try to look no more than interested but uninvolved, or choose my pose of boredom. Whatever you choose, make sure not to clap.
Save that for the fans.