What Journos Really Do at the DNC

Hint: Most aren't covering anything
By Michael Foreman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 28, 2008 12:29 PM CDT
What Journos Really Do at the DNC
Reporters interview a Barack Obama impersonator outside the Pepsi Center, Aug. 25, 2008. Many reporters are "mournfully wandering around like Diogenes, looking for stories."    (AP Photo, file)

A whopping 15,000 journalists arrived in Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention. The Columbia Journalism Review sent Justin Peters to find out what they're doing:  

  • 7,500 mostly mill about: "Only a small number of reporters actually have a reason to be here."
  • 2, 294 pace the parking lot, "mournfully wandering around like Diogenes, looking for stories."
  • 1,026 get drunk.

  • 500 beg for credentials: "It’s Denver’s answer to the Island of Misfit Toys."
  • 62 get massages.
  • 7 take photos with rum mascot Captain Morgan.
  • 1 tries to land an interview with both Morgan and "Democratic legend" Ted Sorenson: "That person is me, and, in this, I am a failure."
  Follow the link below to see what the rest are up to. (More lists stories.)

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