Sunday, August 31, 2008

Cranky media lands in St. Paul

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

We've long expected the media arriving in St. Paul to be tired and grumpy, and we were right:

D.C.-based Hearst News Service reporter Jennifer Dlouhy was standing on the 8th floor of the Mill City Museum at a pre-convention media party last night, overlooking the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. She said that compared to Denver, where the Democrats just wrapped up their convention, "It’s far better food, a far more beautiful backdrop."

"But,” she said of the reporters, “they’re not having as much fun. Maybe they’re just tired.”
...
This week's challenge for reporters, assuming the convention even goes ahead, will be warding off convention fatigue.

“This is like running a marathon and being told you have another 20 miles to go, but at least this 20 miles is indoors,” said New York 1 News political director Robert Hardt, who, like many others here already, flew into town straight from Denver. He was referring to the last-night move in Denver from the intimate Pepsi Center to the outdoor Invesco Field.
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Later, standing in the 5th floor lobby of the Marriot Hotel, where New York reporters and delegates are staying, Daily News reporter Liz Benjamin explained, “You got an exhausted media crew. Nobody wants to go out drinking all night. For the first five days, it’s a party, for the second, it’s a grind. I’m more interested in getting six hours of sleep instead of four,” she said. Then, she went to bed. It was 10 p.m.