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Covering the big fish

~ EDITORIAL


Once every four years the little fish (that would be us) get to mix it up with the big fish (you know, the “mainstream media”) in the covering of the national elections.

This election season is the first one I can remember in a long time where California actually has had a say in who might become president. For awhile, when Ted Cruz looked like he might be a contender all the way to the convention, I harbored fond hopes that for the first time in my own living memory I would be casting a vote in the California primary that would actually mean something. No go.

However, as something of a consolation prize The Times-Advocate and its sister publication The Valley Roadrunner are making an effort to cover the national primaries of both parties as they occur in San Diego.

Now I hate to be critical of the Trump campaign, but I thought it was a little snide on their part to not consider us important enough to grant press credentials to so we could cover the Donald’s visit to the San Diego Convention Center on Friday afternoon. So we were forced to cover the event guerrilla style, which means that we wrote about the event anyway, even though they wouldn’t let us in as reporters.

This is the letter we got from the Trump campaign: “With the abun­dance of requests for media credentials, we have to take proactive mea­sures with our credentialing process to ensure the success of each event.” It also said, “We must limit the number of credentialed media and give priority to our national and local outlets.”

That’s pretty ironic, given that you can’t get much more local than the Times-Advocate, whose focus is Escondido and The Roadrunner, which draws a bead on Valley Center and Pauma Valley. I would think that many of the residents of those two communities would not just be Trump­sters, but would be the “Hell yes, I’m voting for Trump and anyone who isn’t is a moron!” type that flooded the convention center.

Hey, Donald! We are your people! (Well, I’m not, but you get the idea.) We are the journalistic equivalent of the “common people.” So what are you doing giving us the digit?

This is especially frustrating since the Bernie campaign welcomed us with open arms last week.

My philosophy about newsgathering is, if they don’t let us in, we’ll find a way a way in. Hopefully, the next time Trump comes swinging through San Diego his press people will allow us to proudly walk into their rally with our heads held high, instead of skulking and hiding our note-taking.



*Note: Opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the newspaper.

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