The Scoop
Kamala Harris has ridden a wave of positive press coverage to the United Center in Chicago, but to judge by the grumbling here in Chicago, the honeymoon may be ending soon.
The Democratic National Convention — off to a smooth start by all outward metrics — has also featured logistical headaches, like long lines, bad internet connections, expensive price tags, and limited access to the floor, leaving many of the 15,000 credentialed media grumbling, and their representatives openly battling convention organizers.
“We are concerned that the decision to reduce dedicated and accessible workspace by hundreds compared to prior conventions will hinder journalists’ ability to cover the historic nature of this convention,” the Standing Committee of Correspondents, the apolitical representative of journalists on Capitol Hill that represents the media to political conventions, said in a statement shared with Semafor.
The committee represents virtually all major American news organizations and works to credential journalists at major events. The group has been privately raising concerns to the DNC since March about press access and “urged the DNC to allocate significantly more workspace for print journalists attending this year’s convention in Chicago than they decided to provide,” according to the statement.
On the first day of the Republican National Convention in July — a smoothly operated event in Milwaukee that offered journalists an unexpected welcome — the DNC sent an email to the committee laying out what access was going to look like, including the number of credentialed media. The committee was horrified that the number of press stands were significantly lower than those provided for previous conventions, including the RNC earlier this year. The daily press gallery organizations were only given 35 seats, as well as 90 unassigned stadium seats with table tops. There were other more practical concerns: The New York Times seats had electrical machinery underneath, which the press gallery staff asked to change.
In a tense call with DNC Director of Media Logistics Pete Velz, the members of the Standing Committee pleaded with the DNC to expand access. Velz informed the committee that there would be no substantive changes.
Other media organizations found issues to grumble about. Journalists, including those from Semafor, waited hours to get to the convention hall. When they arrived, they found what Slate’s communications director, Katie Rayford, described as a “wildly disorganized” scene.
TV network executives also told Semafor that the event was more expensive. Broadcast suites inside the United Center were nearly double the cost and much smaller than those offered a month earlier at the RNC.
“Democrats value a free press, and our convention is a reflection of that,” a convention spokeswoman, Emily Soong, said in an email. “We’ve prioritized making sure members of the media have the resources they need to bring the story of our convention out to their communities from both inside and outside of the convention hall, and we look forward to working with members of the media and content creators alike as we bring the story of our convention, our party, and the Harris-Walz ticket to the American people.”
Democratic National Convention officials emphasized that the event is no cost to press, and that there is plenty of workspace for journalists in areas adjacent to the arena. They also noted that the number of credentials are in line with past conventions.
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Max’s view
Is there any lamer story than the media whining about access? No description of waiting in lines or searching for a spot on the ground to file a story is as annoying as it feels to do those things. As someone who was at both, the logistical experience of the RNC was unquestionably smoother than its Democratic counterpart. But the convention is a television event, and millions of Americans are going to see the convention and have no idea a few extra journalists were frustrated with the accommodations.
But beneath the press access grumbling is a bigger, more interesting story about the changing media landscape and relationship between the press and the Democratic party.
The old school news media that Democrats used to need to get their message out is no longer their only option. The DNC has made a serious, deliberate effort to make room for hundreds of content creators and influencers. These newcomers have gotten coveted passes to the convention floor and workspace in the DNC’s new creator lounge and creator platform.
The friction also illustrates the ongoing tension between the mainstream press and some parts of the Democratic Party that have played out over the course of this election. The Biden White House and his former campaign (essentially the same staff as the current Harris campaign) were deeply critical of the New York Times and other major nonpartisan media organizations over their coverage of the president, his mental faculties, and of Donald Trump, who the campaign believed got unfairly positive coverage from mainstream press. The DNC and its chair Jaime Harrison were among many institutional Democrats who criticized the news media’s coverage of Joe Biden following the debate. It’s not coincidental that the organization wouldn’t feel the need to completely bend over backwards to press demands for greater access.
But the last days of the Biden administration — when carefully-managed access concealed a president’s waning capacity to campaign — served as a reminder that whiny-sounding complaints are one line of the defense of a free press, if a particularly grating one.
The View From the Trump Campaign
The Trump campaign is using the DNC’s logistical issues to promote one of their main attack on the vice president, that her promises to bring down prices would lead to shortages.
“Waiting in lines are all part of the Kamala economic plan …bread lines , gas lines …you name it , you’ll be in line for it. Be Joyful!” Chris LaCivita, Trump’s campaign advisor and chief operating officer of the RNC, said in a text message.
— with Shelby Talcott