A Review of My "Year of Application"

In a practice that--thanks to our ever-increasing reliance on electronic devices--is becoming less frequent, humans switch out their calendars in the annual event of "ringing out the old and ringing in the new" around this time of year. It serves as an opportunity of reflection, introspection and resolve to guide us along our paths in the new year. While I have no wall hanging to change out, I do have this blog to browse through for that same purpose. According to my first post for the year that just ended, 2014 was supposed to be my "year of application" and to spread my journalistic "wings" and, except for the tailing off near the end, I think I can claim success.

In that submission, I talked optimistically about using the skills I acquired through my then-recent completion of my Certificate of Journalism from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the lead-up to being laid off from a job that I held for a little over five years (that was alluded to as a "year of transition").  I initially established a schedule that I would follow for my posting of new content onto this site that was slowly cast aside based upon wavering levels of interest as well as opportunities taken (and ignored) throughout that 12-month period.

Here's a breakdown of my 52 posts last year:

BTS: The Tale of Two Rallies

Same location...same incident...two vastly different events.

It's been a little more than a week since I drove away from Beavercreek's Fairfield Crossing shopping center parking lot and the second of two rallies that was held at its Walmart Superstore, the site of the August 5th shooting of John Crawford III by that city's police department. I made a point of attending both events because I wanted to play the part of an objective reporter but it was extremely hard to equate two things that were almost completely opposite in their scope and purpose.

BTS: Air Force One Arrival and 2012 Campaign Wrap-Up

[NOTE: this is a long-delayed follow-up for the last Obama event I covered back in October 2012 and a "capstone" for my political reporting for that most recently completed presidential election cycle. Because of the 16-month gap, I am relying upon emails and photos to help dredge up the more intangible recollections of my experiences.]

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama speaking to a crowd at Dayton, Ohio's Triangle Park at a joint rally on October 23, 2012. (photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

Dayton was extremely fortunate to have both major party tickets bring their nominees to the "Gem City" for joint appearances in the later stages of the general election campaign.  I took an unfortunate pass on the Romney/Ryan dual event at the Dayton International Airport in late September.  That same month, I did cover a Biden rally right down the road from me at Wright State University and an Obama "grassroots event" held in Cincinnati's Eden Park but I was surprised when I received an email on October 19th from the Obama 2012 campaign about a joint appearance at the city's historic Triangle Park on the following Tuesday.  Other than at the national convention in Charlotte, neither candidate had appeared at the same venue at the same time so this was a ready indicator of the importance of Ohio to their reelection chances.

BTS: Obama's Stretch Run in Ohio (Part 1 of 2)

[NOTE: this is the first of a two-part installment of my "behind the scenes" observations related to the 2012 presidential campaign.  With the nearly 6-month delay between the events and this posting, I might overlook some of the trivial things I endured but I wanted to finally jot down the main items as well as my reflections on the entire reporting experience.] 

Seasongood Pavillion in Cincinnati's Eden Park being prepared the evening before President Obama's "grassroots event" last September

If you go back to my last "BTS" feature (related to my coverage of Vice President Joe Biden's September 12th "grassroots rally" at Wright State University), you would see that I (finally!) established contact with the Obama campaign's press office and was issued official press credentials to cover that rally as a full-fledged member of the media.  Since they had me on their email notification roster, I was receiving several updates per day on the current, recently completed, and upcoming events scheduled for the president and his running mate.  With Ohio as the biggest "swing state" prize in the November general election, it was only a matter of time before Obama would make his own appearance in the local area, and I received the following advisory just a few short days later:

BTS: Romney Relief Rally

[NOTE: I usually do these features in sequential order based on the events I cover; however, since this one has attracted so much attention in the press, I decided to put it ahead of the two Obama-related events I attended in late September and just over a week ago.]

The original Dayton Daily News ad for the Romney "victory rally" (that eventually turned into a "storm relief event")

If you are a regular visitor here, you would know that I have been focusing my live reporting almost exclusively on political events.  Since there were no Democratic primaries in Ohio this year, I visited several Republican campaign rallies leading up to the state's primary on "Super Tuesday" back in March (I was able to attend events for three of the four serious contenders, with Ron Paul being the only exception, as well as seeing Herman Cain right before he suspended his campaign in early December).  Once President Obama started his own reelection drive back in May, I covered two of his Ohio rallies as well as one by Vice President Biden right down the road from me at Wright State University.  I took a pass at the joint Romney/Ryan event out at the Dayton International Airport (the same location I went to when Air Force One brought the president to the area last week) and, as I wrote earlier, I regretted that decision.  When I saw the ad for a "victory rally" in neighboring Kettering earlier this week, I was not going to let another opportunity slip away again.

BTS: Biden Fairborn Rally

I was getting into that event by any means available

Much like the character in the 5th century poem Psychomachia, patience is a virtue that triumphs over anger in the end.  If you read my last political event blog posting, you would know that there was a slight misunderstanding about my credentials at the Obama campaign kickoff rally in Columbus back in May.  In my 'BTS' about that event, I described how I did not get in as a credentialed journalist but attended anyway in the general seating area.  While I was not happy about how that day turned out, there was one 'silver lining' that made that trip worthwhile.  When discussing my press status with the staff, I was able to talk directly with a campaign media representative and we exchanged contact information.  She apologized for not letting me in for that event but said that I should keep in touch for future Ohio events.  That opportunity finally surfaced early last month just a few miles from my house.

BTS: Turner Luncheon

[NOTE:  these 'BTS' features were created to document my personal experience in covering events that I report on here in this blog.  While I have been letting a little partisanship slip out in some recent postings, I will try to keep this and other 'BTS' items apolitical in nature and stick to the 'nuts and bolts' of getting and producing the stories.]

Representative Mike Turner participating in a debate on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor of the US House of Representatives on May 17, 2012.

I was first made aware of Congressman Turner’s appearance through an announcement that was posted on the main Sharepoint site in my office's computer network.  The National Military Intelligence Association, with a chapter in the Dayton area, holds monthly membership meetings and tries to secure guest speakers from the local military and corporate community to speak to the gatherings.  On occasion, speakers from outside the area, to include Louis Andre, Senior Vice President of Intelligence Business Strategy for CACI International, Inc, and US Representative Steve Austria of Ohio's 7th Congressional District, have accepted invitations to address the membership.  To maximize participation at those events (and to help grow overall membership in the group), announcements are disseminated through a variety of online methods in and around the Wright-Patterson Air Force base community.  I will admit that I have attended a few luncheons over the past two years and the attendance averaged between 30 to 40 people and I assumed that this figure would be higher with someone of Turner's stature as this month's guest speaker.

BTS: Doolittle Reunion Week

(NOTE: in the spirit of a personal credo I initiated for covering events on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, this, like my previous one on the Obama visit, is another overview of an article that wasn't published but one that I want to post concerning my participation as a private citizen and military retiree)

Four B-25 Mitchell bombers fly past the National Museum of the United States Air Force on April 18 in a 'missing man' formation to honor the Doolittle Raiders.

During an earlier episode of journalistic 'stamina', I covered two events in different cities on the same day (the Santorum and Romney campaign rallies before Ohio's presidential primary back in early March).  In my summary, I described the logistical and physical tolls that reporters sometimes face when given similar assignments.  If I include travel time, those two events only spanned the period of just around nine hours.  In comparison, they were done in the amount of time most people spend at their jobs, to include a lunch break.  Although I ended up coming down with something, these conditions were not very arduous and are considered normal for journalists who follow major candidates as they crisscross the country every four years.  With that experience in my recent past, the next milestone would be covering several events that take place over a multiple number of days and, in the case of the recent Doolittle Reunion activities, at different locations.  Needless to say, I was up for the challenge.

BTS: "Hoodie" Rally

Dayton's Courthouse Square stage before the April 1 'hoodie' rally began.

This item is a little hard for me to write because of the subject matter and its polarity within the local community as well as the nation in recent weeks (it continues to be one of America's most divisive 'third rail' issues).  Racism is an unfortunate part of life in this country and in others around the world and the 'hoodie' rally that I covered on April 1 used it as an overt theme to help bring out the area's African-American community to that event.

BTS: Obama, Cameron Visit Dayton

(NOTE: it's taken me a while to get this item ready to go online so it lacks the relevancy I originally wanted it to have.  Problems securing an interviewee for a school assignment and other lingering issues prevented me from posting this until today.  I hope it was worth the wait!) 

Air Force One sits on the apron at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio on March 13th.

This is the second time that I've written a 'behind-the-scenes' feature and you might be wondering to yourself--where is the ORIGINAL post?  For the Santorum and Romney events earlier this month, I posted the stories first before I wrote up a summary of my personal experiences about the coverage.  I was hoping to do the same thing this time around but, if I can borrow a phrase from Broadway, "a funny thing happened on the way to the tarmac" and the 'BTS' postlude, in this instance, became the story.

BTS: Weekend Political Rallies

(NOTE:  This is another new feature that I am calling 'Behind the Scenes' where I will provide some of the 'background' that goes on  with my reporting experiences.  I wanted to do this for the Gingrich event last month but, as usual, other things superseded it.  I can go through my notes and photos to post on another day but I want to get these more recent events out before I lose the initiative.)

Some of the scenery outside the recent Santorum event in Blue Ash (left) and the Romeny town hall in Beavercreek (right).

March 3rd was sort of a 'milestone' day for me as a journalist-in-training.  Over the course of the past several months, I've been gradually getting out into my local community to cover real-world events to help hone my skills and to get myself acquainted with the local (and sometimes national) media.  However, all the ones before this past weekend were 'solo' events--I only scheduled one at a time or one per day.  With the 'Super Tuesday' presidential primary bearing down on Ohio voters, this was going to be a very good weekend to get closer to my goal of covering all of the major candidates in the 2012 election cycle.  Unfortunately, Texas congressman Ron Paul decided to skip Ohio and focus his campaign on states where he thought he might have a chance of winning (Washington state, Alaska) so I doubt that I will have an opportunity to attend one of his rallies.  To counter that bad news, I learned late last week that former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum had added a morning Cincinnati-area appearance to his other scheduled stops in the state that weekend.  I had already RSVP'd for the announced town hall meeting by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney here in the Dayton area for the afternoon so it would be my first 'double' coverage day.