2009: Tommy Christopher’s Year In Review
Working for Mediaite has been a wonderful, but challenging, experience. First of all, I don’t think there’s another White House reporter who works for a media reporting site. When there isn’t a ready-made media story underway, this can lead to some interesting lines of questioning, to be sure.
It has also forced me to become a sharper reporter, rather than coasting along on commentary and clever turns of phrase. On that score, I find encouragement in the fact that I’ve almost got nowhere to go but up.
Whatever this year brings for me, I am certain it will be big for Mediaite. The brand carried clout from the minute it was launched, probably due to the involvement of Rachel, and that of Dan Abrams. Whereas before, it was through shameless and relentless self-promotion that I gained any recognition at all, now colleagues like Sam Stein know me because of my association with Mediaite. Press aides return some of my calls and emails instead of none.
Lost Video Treasures – Here are some video clips from this year that I never got to use, for one reason or another. They’re culled from about 300 clips that I took this year. This is the blessing and the curse of digital video, you can have your camera on pretty much all the time, but then you have to sort through it all.
Rolling Thunder – One of the things we do at the White House after the briefings is to be on the lookout for the odd photo op. One afternoon, the word came down that the Rolling Thunder motorcycle club was coming to the West Wing for a visit. All of the still photographers, network cameramen, and I went outside to wait for their arrival. The scuttlebutt was that they were going to come rumbling down the drive in formation, then dismount right outside the West Wing to complete a grand entrance. We arranged ourselves accordingly, to capture the full spectacle, and we waited for, like, half an hour for them to show up. This is what we got:
The Secret to a Salahi-Proof White House: Here’s a clip I didn’t even know I had. On my first trip into the White House, I got my first glimpse at the Uniformed Secret Service’s heard-it-all-before-and-don’t-care diligence when they turned away someone a lot more well-known than the White House Crashers.
In case you missed it, Chuck had already been into the White House that day. See, that’s how it’s done. Not on the list? No soup for you!
Bo Obama: Here’s some video I shot of Bo. It was dark, so the footage is a little hard to make out, but I thought it was interesting that Bo was bumping into things and listing when he ran because the fur around his eyes was making it hard for him to see.
Biden Mentors Young Men
Here’s a great clip of Vice President Joe Biden speaking to some young guys after the White House’s Father’s Day barbecue. This was at the very end, and most of the press had packed up and left, but Joe took the extra time to spend with these kids.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
