If there is one election which has galvanised the scrutiny of the media, it's got to be the present US presidential one. Every angle, good, bad and indifferent, have been covered.
So, what is it like on the campaign trail for a reporter? Not that great, if former Newsweek journalist and author Michael Hastings is to be believed - writing in GQ magazine in what be regarded as some sort of confession of an "insider":
"Before I start reminiscing, I want to make clear that there are some great and responsible journalists covering politics in America. It’s a hard job, for all sorts of reasons, some of which I’ll lay out here. It’s often physically exhausting and also mind-numbingly dull much of the time. More importantly, if you’re traveling with a campaign day in and day out, it’s difficult to get any critical distance on what you’re seeing, and the price you pay as a reporter for writing stuff that doesn’t echo the campaign’s message is excommunication from your sources, which doesn’t sit well with your editors back at the home office.
Fortunately for me, I was on a somewhat unusual assignment, a long-term, supersecret project for Newsweek magazine. The agreement Newsweek had made with each of the campaigns was that in addition to the reporters covering them day to day, there would be another bunch whose material would be kept confidential and published in a special issue of the magazine, as well as in a book, that would come out after the election."
So, what is it like on the campaign trail for a reporter? Not that great, if former Newsweek journalist and author Michael Hastings is to be believed - writing in GQ magazine in what be regarded as some sort of confession of an "insider":
"Before I start reminiscing, I want to make clear that there are some great and responsible journalists covering politics in America. It’s a hard job, for all sorts of reasons, some of which I’ll lay out here. It’s often physically exhausting and also mind-numbingly dull much of the time. More importantly, if you’re traveling with a campaign day in and day out, it’s difficult to get any critical distance on what you’re seeing, and the price you pay as a reporter for writing stuff that doesn’t echo the campaign’s message is excommunication from your sources, which doesn’t sit well with your editors back at the home office.
Fortunately for me, I was on a somewhat unusual assignment, a long-term, supersecret project for Newsweek magazine. The agreement Newsweek had made with each of the campaigns was that in addition to the reporters covering them day to day, there would be another bunch whose material would be kept confidential and published in a special issue of the magazine, as well as in a book, that would come out after the election."
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