UC Berkeley Journalism - Program - Reporting on Politics

Reporting on Politics

By Kara Platoni

The boat pulled into the harbor and the grinning gubernatorial candidate stepped off the gangplank into a frothing crowd of cheerleaders yelling "Go, Dan, go!" Flags flew, Marines snapped to attention, yellow and blue balloons went berzerk in the breeze, a high school jazz band lurched into a frenzied rendition of "This Land Is Your Land," and those of us hanging out in the press box had these great big loopy grins on our faces. We'd made it to the convention, and this -- this goofy seething chaos happening before our eyes -- this was politics.

More specifically, it was Susan Rasky's Political Junkies class, a seminar devoted to those of us who can't get enough of this kind of stuff around the house.

It was September, and we had travelled to Long Beach to cover the State Republican Convention, where we were treated to the sight of a seafaring Dan Lungren, as well as one-on-one time with party insiders and breakfast with Pat Boone. We rolled tape, shot photos and took notes at press conferences, floor debates and gala dinners, and when we finally felt like we couldn't write another thing, we had a friendly discussion about the dynamics of sumo wrestling with someone who later turned out to be a state assemblyman.

In October we tagged along to the Senatorial debate held in San Francisco and gathered information ignored by the rest of the press: important information, like the fact that Senator Barbara Boxer has to stand on a box to reach the podium, and that challenger Matt Fong has to have the sweat patted from his balding head in between questions.

In November, we covered the elections, staying up throughout election night with Professor Rasky's J-200 class as they tried their hands at political reporting. We helped them polish off their stories as the poll results rolled in and gave them many super-useful veteran political reporter tips, like how to sponge statistics off of the Secretary of State's web site and how yelling at the TV really does affect election coverage.

And in between, we actually went to class, where we'd adopted a sort of "Crossfire" format. Professor Rasky would toss out a question like, "Who is the most important Republican in the state?" and people would goodnaturedly shout at one another until the clock ran out. Between the half dozen of us, we discussed and then turned out articles and radio pieces on Latino voters, Proposition 5 and Indian gaming, the fate of soon-to-be ex-Governor Pete Wilson's appointees, and the ways that polling is changing American politics.

So I guess you could say we were a little bit obsessed.

But one would expect that of a junkie.