A promo clip with highlights from State of the Union lives. The video condenses footage from the BiT evening news, BiT special State of the Union studio and The Day Begins, morning talk show of the Bulgarian National Television.
WASHINGTON — Some journalists wait a long time to receive a credential to cover national politics on Capitol Hill. When you get one as a junior year in college – even just for three months – it’s a dream come true.
As President Barack Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union address Tuesday, Medill News Service reporters Ryan McCrimmon and I, helped by Marina Cracchiolo and Soad Mana, set up the first live televised coverage of the event for Medill. We broadcast for two Bulgarian channels – Bulgarian National Television, one of the three major broadcasters in Bulgaria, and BiT, a Chicago-based network with a niche audience of a few thousand Bulgarians in North America.
We got to Capitol Hill at 5 p.m. — four hours before the president’s speech — to set up at our assigned post: Camera Position Zero in the Senate Russell Rotunda, right in between corespondents of Al Jazeera America and CNBC.
Covering the president’s big night brings perks – randomly bumping into Sen. John McCain; thrills – bomb squad dogs surprising you behind corners; and new neighbors – correspondents of ABC, CNN, Fox, Bloomberg and The Washington Post casually chatting with us.
But it was stressful too – this was my first stand-up. Seconds after Obama ended his speech, BiT anchor Yasen Darakov threw questions at me to analyze it – I didn’t even had a chance to review my notes; I translated on the spot and prayed I would not make Medill’s greatest sin – a factual error. Both channels took a risk with a student reporter live on prime television. In the end, they were pleased.
This is a story of what stayed off-camera on Jan. 28 – how four Northwestern students navigated security, braved technology failures and bloopers to gather news and enjoy the privilege of being part of the SOTU media coverage.
Ryan McCrimmon and Vesko Cholakov, biting a Potbelly sandwich and drafting a script, prepare for the first live shot for BiT’s evening news at 8 p.m. Eastern time. (Soad Mana/Medill)
All the small moving pieces
On D.C.’s metro from Medill News Service’s bureau to the Capitol, I kept asking Ryan if we had packed everything. Our bags were stuffed with Potbelly sandwiches and equipment – lots of both. The two of us carried five bags with lights, two tablets (both of which later failed), chargers, a tripod, camcorder, broadband mobile Internet connector, a MacBook Pro, an iPod, cell phones, lavalier microphones, batteries, notebooks, a Dejero Live+ 20/20 Transmitter and lots of cables.
We did, of course, forget the most important cable of all – an extension cord. Soad rushed back to the bureau to save us, while I told our CNBC colleagues that we just had to use theirs for an hour. A few hours later, Al Jazeera reporters were relying on us to power their lights.
But we had done a lot of prep to make sure we could report as well as veterans who have covered the State of the Union address again and again.
On the picture below are the headshots – compiled by Ryan McCrimmon – of senators with offices in Russell Senate Building. Soad Mana also prepared a list with short bios too. We remember them all (or tried, at least) – so we can recognize senators, nab them for an interview and ask relevant questions.
As good as your team is
State of the Union is an event on a staggering scale. No person alone could have achieved what we did as a team.
When BiT managing director Yasen Darakov called me Sunday to ask for a pre-recorded stand-up, I jumped on the idea of a live broadcast — and he agreed. It wouldn’t have worked out though without a great team.
Ellen Shearer and Tom Diemer, Medill News Service editors, thank you for trusting us and letting us experiment.
Roushan Islam and Jon Agnew, the Medill D.C. bureau technology backbones, thank you for solving all of last-minute tech whims I came up with – from running to RadioShack to buy an HDMI cable to troubleshooting the iPad.
Ryan McCrimmon, a Northwestern News Network sportscaster veteran, thank you for instructing me on how to talk to the camera and shooting the liveshots to make me look so great.
Soad and Marina, thank you for so many things that made a difference – like running for a power supply and feeding me with great quotes.
A small part of something bigger
Sixteen other of the Medill’s finest reporters provided too in-depth State of the Union coverage from various angles – graphics, social media reactions, policy analysis on education and healthcare and color stories. Check their work on the Medill on the Hill homepage!
Medill News Service reporters go over the budget and assignments for State of the Union shortly after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. On the front desk from left to tight – editor and director of the program Ellen Shearer and web producers for the event, Jeanne Kuang and Sylvan Lane. Topics discussed included how to nab a senator and come up with good questions. (Vesko Cholakov/Medill)
