Campaign-Embedded Journalists Discuss Their Experiences

Campus Progress and the GW School of Political Management hosted two panel discussions Monday about the experience of being an embedded journalist during a national campaign. The event, “All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Campaign Embeds Look Back a Year Later,” was hosted by Air America correspondent Ana Marie Cox, who travelled with John McCain’s campaign during the election, and featured many journalists who were embedded in various campaigns throughout the 2008 presidential election as well as some campaign staffers.

The first panel discussion featured several young journalists, most of whom had been embedded for the first time during the 2008 election. This included Adam Aigner-Treworgy, a researcher for the Colbert Report who was embedded in the Thompson and McCain campaigns; Bret Hovell, who was also embedded in the McCain campaign and who is now an associate producer for “Good Morning America” on ABC; Nick Summers, a senior reporter at Newsweek who was embedded in Hillary Clinton’s campaign; and Mike Memoli, who was embedded in Joe Biden’s campaign for RealClearPolitics.

Led by Cox, the four journalists discussed their experiences throughout the campaign. Aigner-Treworgy said that, as an embedded journalist, his job was to “chronicle [the candidates’] every move and be an encyclopedia about what each candidate was doing.” He said that he developed a “sick amount of knowledge of what was being said” by the candidates and their staffers.

As embedded journalists, they were often the first to know changes in campaign strategy and Hovell said, “we became these bellwethers of what the campaign was doing and how it was shifting.”

However, while the embedded reporters did supply the facts for the news stories, they usually were not directly responsible for the finished product.

“We were the start of the news,” said Aigner-Treworgy, “we weren’t very involved in what happened to it after it left our hands.”

Of the endless news cycle created by constant coverage of the campaigns, Hovell said, “You race to put out a blog post before the planet takes off. When you land, you’re already in the second or third version of it.”

The journalists agreed that it was often difficult to decide what would be newsworthy as it was happening.

“Never hold back on information,” said Memoli, “you never know what information might be important.”

The second panel discussion was made up of campaign staffers and senior journalists including McCain/Palin embed Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News, Hillary Clinton staffer Jamie Smith, and McCain staffer Justin Germany. They discussed, among many topics, the fragile relationship between the staffers and the press.

“You’re asking them to treat you like a human being, and that’s what they’re asking you,” said Smith. “I found myself advocating for [the journalists] a lot for access, for interviews, for their value.”

“As life-long as the bonds are, you’re still competitors,” said O’Donnell, “but you’re spending a lot of time together; be nice, understand they’re working hard.”

Asked if they would want to be embedded in a campaign again, many of the younger journalists said no, but O’Donnell was quick to say she would want to do it again once the time comes.

Calling the experience of being embedded “intense, sensory, emotional, and challenging,” O’Donnell called it “one of the most remarkable experiences” she has had as a journalist.

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