Lessons from the Field :
Covering Trump ’ s Inauguration
By Beatrice Motamedi , CJE
C ub reporters often are surprised to learn how little analysis paralysis there is in a newsroom when news happens .
The police scanner crackles with reports of a fire across town ; you drop what you ’ re doing and cover it . A media-hungry mayor calls yet another press conference just to see if you ’ ll show up ; you do . Twitter tells you that a pilot just landed his damaged airplane in the Hudson River ; you run . News breaks and you go .
That ’ s why I was concerned when Isamar Ramirez , a journalism student at New York University who was then based in Washington , D . C ., told me a year ago that she was worried about covering Donald Trump ’ s inauguration .
Curious , I posted a query to the Journalism Education Association listserv on Jan . 13 to see if others felt the same . It provoked a wide range of responses , some understandable but others concerning .
Several advisers cited the costs and logistics of taking high school students to Washington , daunting even in less turbulent times . Still others reacted — some angrily — to the suggestion of safety concerns , despite a Jan . 18 safety advisory by the Committee to Protect Journalists warning the press to take precautions ( see sidebar : “ Getting into Good Trouble ”) and an offer from the Student Press Law Center of a legal hotline (“ We didn ’ t hear a thing ,” then-executive director Frank LoMonte said afterwards ).
“ I ’ m just not sure it ’ s safe ,” she said , adding “ there ’ s so much pushback on the media right now — I don ’ t even know if people will talk to me .”
On and off the listserv , several advisers expressed exhaustion after a long and ugly campaign that had tested their ability to stay neutral in the classroom . With