All my kidding about the foreign press and how they get treated at political convention aside, I have much respect for how the foreign press treats others.
In this picture you see the “writing stands” set up next to podium at the Pepsi Center. These are paid seats reserved months ago by media organizations that allow you to watch the convention and file reports live without having to run back to the tents. They were the best seat in the house - and we didn’t have any.
But we did, uh, “borrow” them frequently, always from the foreign press who we knew had deadlines that fell anywhere from 7-14 hours ahead of hours. Hey, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and you gotta do what you gotta do. As you might imagine, this became harder and harder to do as the convention heated up. We got caught a couple times and and in each case but one, the foreign reporters were not only cool with it, but we shared great conversation and traded business cards. A special shout out to the guys at Der Spiegel, NHK Japan and Asahi Shimbun for helping me and Del Walters out.
The French? Well that’s another story…