If Vermon Supreme is elected President of the United States, he promises to travel back in time to strangle Adolf Hitler as a child. He also guarantees that he will give each American citizen a pony using the money that President George W. Bush has spent on the war in Iraq. And if time travel and equestrians are not what voters have in mind, they can turn to Randy Crow of North Carolina. Crow, who sees himself as a "visionary," believes that the terrorist planes of Sept. 11, 2001 were guided by remote controls. Crow's base of support is "a whole lot of stuff" and his main goal involves a constitutional amendment that requires all votes to be cast by paper ballots.
It was only our first day of the Ex-College course "Producing TV Programs Social Change," and we couldn't help but wonder: were we attending the New Hampshire presidential primary or a three-ring circus?
Tuesday, January 27, 8:30 a.m. With the guidance of our TAs we skipped over traditional first-class briefings and orientations and instead dived right into the world of wires, cameras, tripods, and microphones. In a matter of minutes we were transformed into bona fide journalists -- or at least, so we imagined. The cameras were thrown in our hands, the bus chartered and northbound, and our spirits prepared to capture the frenzy that was the New Hampshire primary.
Upon arriving in the political vortex of Manchester, we were stunned yet bemused by the tactics of the fringe presidential hopefuls amidst the expected supporters of the mainstream candidates. These loud-mouthed political extremists embodied democracy at its best and most basic.
The candidates had to go with the flow and expect the unexpected as an "anything goes" policy permeated the entire day. "If you want to run for president, pick up a piece of cardboard, write your name on it and tell people to vote for you," said Casey Kurbin, a local teenager from Manchester.
While characters such as Vermon Supreme and Randy Crow are unlikely to make it to the "big show" in November, they were still essential to our learning process throughout the day. We were new to the primaries and new to the technicalities of documenting such an event.
We began the day as timid college students and ended as respected news journalists. We realized and came to the firm belief that we had just as much of a right to document and interview candidates as the top network stations. One team started off at NBC News' NH primary coverage headquarters where they were quickly swept into the media whirlwind that dominated the atmosphere. Indeed, the media itself was often the focus.
Beginning our documentary by interviewing Philip Alongi, the Tufts team quickly found itself acting as reporters. We kept our eyes wide open, ready to catch an interview, skipping from producers, to embedded reporters, to the director of the Democratic National Committee, and finally scoring a coveted interview with Chris Mathews of MSNBC's program, "Hardball."
The victory of landing such interviews taught us the value of unbridled confidence and aggressive pursuit. We had a purpose and we aimed high. The real pay-off was not only in getting the interviews, but gaining the respect of our newfound colleagues. With our "Tufts University TV News" press passes in hand, we were able to confidently spread out and integrate ourselves among the supporters and press at the Kerry and Dean campaigns. We had ingratiated -- and schmoozed -- our way to the pinnacle -- for the time being -- of Democratic politics.
The following Thursday, James Glaser, Dean of the College for Undergraduate Education, met with our class to discuss the primary. After we told him about our experiences and encounters, he joked with our professor Roberta Oster Sachs that the class should be renamed, "Weasel 101."
It's true, we may have weaseled our way into the world of television journalism, but now that we've found our place in it we don't plan on leaving anytime soon.
As NBC News team's Executive Director of Specials Planning Philip Alongi articulated: "We want to be competitive. We want to win the story. We want to own the story." And that is precisely what we did. We also learned the art of adaptation.
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