Georgia GOP backtracks on delegate media access
10:37 am August 21, 2012, by Jamie
Dupree
After initially saying that
"the Georgia Republican Party’s events away from the Convention will be
closed to the press," state GOP officials acknowledged a
"communications glitch" in their media prep for the GOP convention
and promised to allow access for reporters next week in Tampa.
"We may have fumbled it a
bit," said Brian Keahl, the Executive Director
of the Georgia Republican Party.
Keahl and I spoke by telephone this morning after my blog
recounted how I couldn't even get a basic schedule of what Georgia delegates
would be doing outside of the GOP convention next week.
All I wanted was to know when
Georgia delegates were having breakfast each day, so I could try to swing by
the hotel and interview a few people.
But with a large number of media
requests for interviews, the Georgia GOP seemed to be playing defense to keep
reporters from pestering state delegates with questions before the convention
begins.
"It is not our intention to
disallow access to our delegates as much as an attempt to respect their privacy
leading up to the convention," Keahl said on my
voice mail, even though I wasn't going to be interviewing any delegates in
Tampa before Saturday at the earliest.
On Monday, the Georgia GOP sent out
an email to reporters which said that any request for delegate interviews would
have to be submitted via email to the party, with the following information
request:
• Who are you requesting for an
interview?
• What date and time (EDT)?
• What is the topic of this interview?
• What type of interview (recorded TV, live TV, newspaper, etc.)
• If not a telephone interview, what is the proposed location for your
interview?
• Other pertinent information, if any.
As Keahl
noted by phone, every state does things a bit differently. For example, the
Florida delegation (in both parties) always has wide open meetings, which are
often entertaining to attend.
And usually each morning of the
convention, delegates from each state gather at their hotel for breakfast and
then get to hear from a few noted speakers, all while everyone talks about what
kind of fun they had the night before.
It's a relaxed atmosphere that is
fun for reporters, because you can usually find some delegates to chat with
about the day's events at the convention.
Finally after a few minutes of back
and forth, Keahl guaranteed to me that reporters
would have access to delegates at the hotel, and promised to get me some
schedule information soon, along with a list of delegates by the end of the
week.
What it sounded like was that the
order had gone out to keep the media from swamping delegates right now, but
that was interpreted by others inside the Georgia GOP to mean strict limits on
reporters for the entire convention week.
"I think there was some kind of
communication glitch here," said Keahl.
Even as Keahl
and I were speaking by phone, details started to leak out from a few of the
delegates, who sent me messages about where the delegation would be having
lunch on this day or that day, who was going to speak and who was sponsoring
the gathering.
More tips on the Georgia, Florida,
Ohio & Oklahoma delegations would be appreciated, for both conventions.
On to Tampa. And then Charlotte.
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