The Other Side of the Camera: A TV Reporter's Stint as a Congressional Aide

Abstract

On a drizzly late afternoon, soon after the November 1984 elections and well before the start of the 99th Congress, I slogged into the Cannon House Office Building for an interview with a real, live congressman. This was not a new experience. As a television reporter for a decade, I'd interviewed dozens of representatives and senators along the way. This interview was entirely different, however, because this time I was looking for a job, and the member was looking for an APSA Congressional Fellow to help out in his office.After the usual half hour wait in the lobby, I was ushered in to meet the member. It was football season and before settling into the couch, he was bragging about his alma mater's quarterback. Fortunately, my home team had a hot quarterback too, so we debated quarterback's arms instead of the nuclear or conventional variety. I was scheduled for 20 minutes with the member, and half the time expired before the member abruptly turned to the real subject at hand—hockey. About the time I'd run through the last fact in my hockey memory, the member actually picked up my resume and scanned it.One fact leaped from the page and got him even more worked up than his quarterback's passing percentage. “So you're a TV reporter, huh? I've always liked having TV guys around.” By now the 20-minute interview time was up, but it would be another 1½ hours before I got back out into the rain, with my first real insight into politics and TV news, from the other side of the camera.