The Power of Words. First Fridays: September 1997: Covering the Clinton vacation.

9/17/97
It was no vacation
covering the Clintons
on Martha's Vineyard

       First Fridays are special at the Providence Journal-Bulletin. On the first Friday of each month, a group of writers and editors gather to talk about writing. On Sept. 5, 1997, a group of about 20 listened to Chris Rowland, Scott MacKay and Liz Rau talking over coverage of President Clinton during his August vacation.
       The moderator, Lynn Arditi, said this was a difficult story to cover because there was very little news and there was intense competition from other media. While Chris had credentials to cover the Clinton's visit of Block Island, Scott and Liz did not have that advantage in covering the Clintons on Martha's Vineyard.
       Chris said the initial problem was that it was difficult at first to tell if the visit was going to occur or not. "It was always on-again, off-again, on-again and off-again.''
       Finally, it was determined that because of a lack of space on the island, the first family would come to Block Island for only one day. The challenge became how to produce a story that would have to be completed shortly after Clinton left the island.
       Chris said he began by trying to obtain as much information as he could off the record on Saturday, Aug. 16, as he was preparing an advance for the Sunday newspaper. One thing he learned was that a special ferry had been chartered to bring over all the gear the Clintons and their support staff would need. That meant Chris was at the dock at 11:30 when the ferry arrived. The material he gathered at the dock became the bottom of the story, one that he built inch by inch, working upward as the day continued.
       "I was writing three inches each time I had the opportunity,'' Chris explained. In addition, Karen Lee Ziner, another Providence Journal reporter, was on the island, providing details. For instance, Chris was in the press pool, which allowed him to see what the President was doing, for instance, when the Clintons stopped for ice cream. But he was unable to get out of the van. "Karen was able to go in afterwards and get the flavors, which is critical to any ice-cream story,'' said Chris dryly.
       The other problem with being in the pool is that reporters never knew where they were going next, or how long they would be at a stop. But it was during these breaks that Chris was able to add to the story. Finally, the President left the island, and Chris and Karen returned to the Atlantic Inn, where they were able to quickly complete the story and file it.
       Both Scott MacKay and Liz Rau covered the Clintons on Martha's Vineyard. Unlike Chris, they did not have White House press credentials and sometimes had to scramble to cover the story.
       "It's difficult to cover a political event that has no message at all,'' observed Scott. "It was very difficult to cover that.''
       The President had determined that he was truly on vacation. He decided to take three weeks off and do very little of any consequence.
       Scott said he wrote one story that he believes had some significance, which was the first Sunday when Clinton attended church and was lectured by the visiting minister on the issue of capital punishment. It helped the story that the minister was from Rhode Island and a chaplain at the state Adult Correctional Institutions.
       But even getting to church is not easy. Scott said he scoured the local newspaper on Saturday night before guessing correctly about the church Clinton would attend. (The following Sunday his first two guesses were wrong.) He hid his notebook in a hymnal, only pulling it out later, because the Secret Service and the White House did not want the church packed with reporters. And afterwards, when Clinton took the minister to lunch, Scott waited for the chance to interview both the minister and his wife.
       It was just as challenging doing the story in which Clinton claimed he had fulfilled his dream by shooting a 79 at the Farm Neck Golf Club. While two Journal-Bulletin photographers carrying equipment were stopped as they approached the course, Scott managed to gain entry by making it appear that he had a tee time. It helped that he was wearing a cap and chomping on a golf tee between his teeth.
       But a certain number of gawkers always seemed to be allowed around the President, and MacKay joined them for a while before pulling out his notebook and asking the President about those Mulligans (illegal practice shots) he had taken on the first tee.
       The reason the Journal was unable to obtain credentials was because the White House wanted to limited the number of press on the island. The reporters said that while this did create problems, they were able to overcome many of them and still obtain their stories.
       Liz Rau recalled that she was on the island for 10 days, in two 5-day shifts. "It all seems like a blur now,'' she said. "I would wake up and wonder what I would write today. It created some anxiety.''
       She ran into Hillary one day in Edgartown, and was able to use the words of an eight-year-old to help tell the story. Another day she and photographer Kathy Borchers were able to get on the golf course because they looked more like tourists than reporters. Liz said it helped that the camera Kathy used was small, and did not look press equipment. (Actually, Kathy reported after this session that she was using a $20,000 digital camera that is slightly larger than a .35mm. But that's another story.)
       The best story, and perhaps the easiest, was the one about local congressman Patrick Kennedy going sailing with his father, Ted, and the President. There was no problem being on top of this story; Patrick wanted the readers who are his constituents in Rhode Island to know he had been out with the President.
       There were questions about Patrick Kennedy's quote in the third paragraph of the story, where Patrick gushed about the fact that he was "right there'' next to the President. Was that real?
       It was real, says Liz, it was genuine.
       The three reporters were asked how they felt about this assignment.
       Chris said it was pretty exciting. But he said he had the easiest assignment, because the visit to Block Island had a defined beginning, middle and end. Liz said it was fun, although there were times she realized the substance of her reporting dealt with what the President was wearing or what Carly Simon said to him. Scott, the political reporter, had the biggest difficulties, and he said a lot of it has to do with the evolving definition of news. While the public demands to read about celebrities, it's hard to understand why this is so important, said Scott.
       There were questions and discussion about how much weight the newspaper should put on celebrity news as opposed to stories of substance, such as what is happening in Bosnia. There were also questions on why the Journal made the commitment to cover the Clintons so intensely, on a daily basis.
       Metro Editor Tom Heslin said it was a big investment, one that was not taken lightly. But the feeling among editors was that it is unusual for a President to be so close to our readers for as long as three weeks, and there was also a belief that good stories would develop. As to the issue of the evolving definition of news, Heslin said that not all are born out of conflict. He said the Block Island story succeeded because it was so rich in details.
       Lynn Arditi added that the stories were also good because they were not only about the Clintons, but also about the people who came to see them and the people who live on Martha's Vineyard.
       "This was a brush with history,'' said one listener. ``You can not get this close to [Clinton] in Washington.''

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