Covering the Convention

As Cinemogul Cecil B. (The Greatest Show on Earth) DeMille leaned over the railing of the press gallery at the Republican National Convention last week, a reporter asked: "Does this look like the second greatest show on earth to you?" "No," replied DeMille good-naturedly, "this is the greatest." And for the press it was. More than 3,000 newspapermen (and 2,000 radio-TV men) blanketed Chicago for the biggest, most elaborate coverage ever given any story. Pundits, Washington reporters, foreign correspondents, feature writers, women's-angle writers, columnists and "specials" of every stripe turned out more than 12 million words of copy. The coverage, newsmen agreed, was not brilliant, but it could not have been more comprehensive.

Guerrilla Warfare. So many topnotch reporters worked on every angle of the story that, as Herald Tribune Correspondent Bert Andrews pointed out, "there's very little opportunity here for any exclusives. It's just a matter of grinding it out." But there were beats of a sort by those willing to take chances. The day the convention started, Editor Louis Seltzer of the Cleveland Press climbed right out on a limb with a Page One story headlined: IKE WILL WIN ON THE 3RD OR 4TH BALLOT. Two days later in Chicago, Publisher John Knight predicted in the Daily News that Ike would be the candidate and Nixon his running mate. If he was wrong, said Knight, he would "just have to go off fishing somewhere."

Despite the numbers, many newsmen and photographers had a hard time covering the story. There were not enough badges for half the newsmen who wanted them. One newsman, told by Republican Chairman Guy Gabrielson that all his press tickets were gone, got some right away from Chicago's Democratic Boss Jack Arvey. Terrible-tempered Columnist Westbrook Pegler was so outraged by the back-row seat he was assigned that he denounced the "leftwing standing committee that put me way out here in left field." Snapped back Gallery Boss Harold Beckley, who also runs the U.S. Senate's press gallery: "He could write the stuff he's turning out from Baltimore."

Clear the Floor. On the convention floor, newsmen often found the going rough. When U.P. Photographer Stan Tretick tried to take a picture of one of the delegates who had fainted, another delegate clouted him on the head and guards hauled Tretick off the floor. At one point, Temporary Chairman Hallanan called in sergeants-at-arms to clear the floor of newsmen entirely, but the order was reversed after an angry roar of protest.

There were other journalistic hazards far from the convention hall itself. A column by Scripps-Howard's Robert Ruark ("Doug was a dud as a keynoter") was stopped after it turned up alongside an editorial praising General MacArthur's speech as "A Call to Arms." Hearst papers killed a Pegler column saying Eisenhower is "a stupid man [and] I will do all I can to prevent his election."

To foreign newsmen, the convention was often so confusing that, as London Observer Correspondent Alistair Buchan half-jokingly said, "I just treat it as a spectacle and then run off and see 'Scotty' Reston of the New York Times.'''' Hearst papers, which had been editorially neutral between Taft and Ike, got overexcited about MacArthur's chances as a "compromise candidate." Publisher William R. Hearst Jr. himself gave credence to "an excellent authority" that Taft was getting ready to put his weight behind MacArthur. Even on the final day of the convention, when most newsmen were betting only on what ballot Ike would be nominated, Hearst's New York Daily Mirror covered its front page with: NOMINATE MAC IN TAFT MOVE TO STOP IKE.

Whetted Appetite. Instead of a feared competitor, television turned out to be both a nuisance and a help. At every press conference TV-men pushed in their bulky equipment. Some politicos balked at meeting the press before millions of TV-viewers, and reporters often squirmed in their unaccustomed role as actors. But many a reporter and press headquarters also found TV a big help in finding out where news was breaking, or in covering far distant points.

As an "experiment," Pundit Walter Lippmann stayed away from the convention for the first time in as long as he can remember, relying on a borrowed TV set for his coverage. But Lippmann, like many another TV-viewer, also leaned heavily on the work of hundreds of newspaper reporters. Throughout the convention, soaring newspaper sales indicated that TV probably whets the appetite for newspaper news, rather than dulls it. Said Editor Louis Seltzer, putting his finger on the big flaw in TV coverage alone: "The people at the convention can't tell what's happening without expert advice, and neither can those looking at television. Newspapers now need more interpretation and analysis. We've got to tell people what they've seen."

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