13 Pieces of Campaign Advice for Young Reporters
EmailNo. 13 – Do not rely upon the hotel wake-up call. And don't forget time zones.
No. 12 – "the news was first reported by (reporter) of (rival organization)." Do it. Applies to blogs too.
No. 11 – Someone somewhere thinks things you say and do are interesting + reportable.
No. 10 – Don't send that angry email. Save it. And then reconsider in the morning. You’re exhausted.
No 9 – Food that is plentiful and seemingly free does not = non-fattening.
No 8 – Even the people who you like and trust on the campaign will lie to you.
No 7 – Be the reporter challenging false claim by candidate. + if you’re not, be the one who follows up.
No 6 – If you make it to South Carolina without being yelled at by the campaign you’re not doing your job.
No 5 – Keep your eyes peeled. I met my future wife at the Chequers Pub at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.
No 4 – Charge every piece of equipment any chance you get.
No 3 – I know it's a pain, but keep track of those receipts and file every week. Just do it. I swear.
No 2 – More campaign advice for young reporters: befriend the photographers/cameramen.
No 1 – Young reporters gearing up for campaign coverage, I have two words: neck pillow.
-Jake Tapper (@jaketapper)
Haley Barbour: GOP Candidates Haven't Made the Case 
White House Loves Aggressive Journalism ... Abroad
As President Obama says, it’s still a AAA country . . .
NEW YORK — Scientists are reporting the first clear success with a new approach for treating leukemia – turning the patients’ own blood cells into assassins that hunt and destroy their cancer cells.
They’ve only done it in three patients so far, but the results were striking: Two appear cancer-free up to a year after treatment, and the third patient is improved but still has some cancer. Scientists are already preparing to try the same gene therapy technique for other kinds of cancer.
“It worked great. We were surprised it worked as well as it did,” said Dr. Carl June, a gene therapy expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “We’re just a year out now. We need to find out how long these remissions last.”
Posted by: Peter | August 10, 2011, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
“No 7 – Be the reporter challenging false claim by candidate. + if you’re not, be the one who follows up.”
Oh, if only the media was actually doing this with Obama.
Posted by: wheresmymoney | August 10, 2011, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm
“No 7 – Be the reporter challenging false claim by candidate. + if you’re not, be the one who follows up.”
Oh, if only the media was actually doing this with Obama.
Posted by: wheresmymoney | Aug 10, 2011 7:16:59 PM
If only they HAD done it with Obama, we would have a different President today.
Posted by: wheresmymoney | August 10, 2011, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Only one has anything to do with actual reporting #7. I guess that explains why we get such crappy “reporting” these day. So called “reporters” are focusing on everything except reporting the facts. Try some of that #7 Jake, every day. It will do wonders for what we-the-people think about you.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | August 10, 2011, 7:50 pm 7:50 pm
Peter, thanks for posting that upbeat story. For those of us who know someone with cancer, it is a ray of hope.
Posted by: Lydia | August 10, 2011, 9:01 pm 9:01 pm
Jake, I got a kick out of your list for young reporters. Somehow it is easy to see the glamour of a campaign reporters’ job and forget all the behind the scenes hours of waiting and traveling and dead batteries and sleeping in hotels. I laughed at no. 9!
Posted by: Lydia | August 10, 2011, 9:04 pm 9:04 pm
No 14: And don’t forget to wear your “I Love Barack” button…
Posted by: Sigmonde | August 10, 2011, 9:18 pm 9:18 pm
#15. Be grateful you still have a job.
Posted by: young_voter | August 10, 2011, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm
Democrats favorability ratings continue to plummett as America rejects thier lies and deception:
•16% Say U.S. Heading In Right Direction
•74% Believe Economy is Getting Worse
•Election 2012: Generic Republican 46%, Obama 43%
•67% Favor Finding Spending Cuts in All Government Programs
21% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21
Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 41%, Democrats 39%
No Plan
No Clue
NOBAMA!
Posted by: David From Texas | August 10, 2011, 9:56 pm 9:56 pm
Posted by: David From Texas | Aug 10, 2011 9:56:56 PM
David be honest, it’s actually the Republicans who are dropping in the polls.
And Democrats just took two seats from Republicans in Wisconsin.
Tea party and Republicans are way down below 40% and the disapproval of the Republicans was something like 59% in the latest CNN/ORC poll.
Posted by: Sally | August 10, 2011, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
#15. Be grateful you still have a job.
Posted by: young_voter | Aug 10, 2011 9:33:49 PM
Seems like it’s only gotten worse since the Republicans took the House.
Posted by: Dave | August 10, 2011, 10:23 pm 10:23 pm
dave wrote:”Seems like it’s only gotten worse since the Republicans took the House.”
.
You should have seen the downturn when the DEMOCRATS took the House and the Senate in 2006. The House Republicans got nothing on Pelosi and crew.
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | August 10, 2011, 10:31 pm 10:31 pm
David from Texas, you forgot that 63% want increased taxes on the wealthy, 9 out of 10 want no increases in taxes on the middle-class or lower income class and nearly two-thirds want no major changes to Social Security or Medicare.
Posted by: Lydia | August 10, 2011, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm
Posted by: Michelle Shu Jas | Aug 10, 2011 10:31:08 PM
Sorry Michelle, Republican administrators already accepted blame for that, including Bush’s top economic advisor.
“As early as 2006, top advisers to Mr. Bush dismissed warnings from people inside and outside the White House that housing prices were inflated and that a foreclosure crisis was looming. And when the economy deteriorated, Mr. Bush and his team misdiagnosed the reasons and scope of the downturn; Mr. Bush was still calling it a “rough patch.”
“The result was a series of piecemeal policy prescriptions that lagged behind the escalating crisis.
“There is no question we did not recognize the severity of the problems,” said Al Hubbard, Mr. Bush’s former chief economics adviser, who left the White House in December 2007. “Had we, we would have attacked them.”
Posted by: Dave | August 10, 2011, 10:38 pm 10:38 pm
Remember what Confucious has told us: Any party He who takes credit for the rain must take the blames for the drought.
Posted by: young_voter | August 10, 2011, 11:29 pm 11:29 pm
New translation: Confucious says those who hastily takes credit for the rain often deflect the blame for the drought.
Posted by: young_voter | August 10, 2011, 11:38 pm 11:38 pm
No.16 Don’t stray from the liberal medias template. Dems good, Repubs bad.
Tea party racist, Marxist fair minded.
ect…
Posted by: chaingang | August 11, 2011, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
One of the NYC fundraisers is being held by Anna Wintour, who in February’s edition of Vogue published a long, fawning profile of Assad’s wife.
What a great judge of character she is. It’s nice that she and President Obama can both ignore his anti-constitutional war on her style icon and sit down for a $70,000/couple dinner together.
Posted by: MayBee | Aug 11, 2011 10:30:20 AM
JAKE?? RULE #7? WHEN WILL YOU ADDRESS THIS?
Posted by: wheresmymoney | August 11, 2011, 1:14 pm 1:14 pm
It’s nice that . . . President Obama can . . . ignore his anti-constitutional war
____________________________
This would be what is commonly referred to as a ‘lie’. It certainly has not been ignored by the President.
Posted by: Jackie | August 11, 2011, 2:10 pm 2:10 pm
“No 5 – Keep your eyes peeled. I met my future wife at the Chequers Pub at the Hotel Fort Des Moines.”
NEWS BREAKING—In a revealing post, Jake Tapper noted that he is planning to marry a woman he met in Des Moines at a hotel bar.
Posted by: bobzaguy | August 11, 2011, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
Hobbit I be, Trouble you will see!
The Tea Party Rules.
Posted by: Mike | August 11, 2011, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
DON’T HAVE RELATIONS WITH SUBJECTS YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE OBJECTIVELY COVERING!!!
(These guys are in withdrawl from the ending of the congressional page program and on the prowl…)
Posted by: IdiocyfromABC | August 12, 2011, 10:05 am 10:05 am
Jake, I’m disappointed. Only one piece of advice has anything to do with substantive reporting. Can’t you give them advice that will help turn out some new journalists in the Murrow tradition? We could do with a lot more issue reporting and a whole lot less media bias.
Posted by: chad3337 | August 12, 2011, 12:09 pm 12:09 pm