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Mike Pesca
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Mike Pesca has covered the Democratic and Republican conventions for NPR’s mid-day news program “Day to Day.” His broadcast career was launched in the eighth grade at Oceanside (N.Y.) Middle School, where he liberally editorialized the morning announcements over the school’s PA system. He’s written for the Washington Post and occasionally substitutes as host of WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show.” He lives in Manhattan. Pesca discussed the campaign with Campaign Desk via email as part of our ongoing series of interviews with reporters and commentators covering the election.
Susan Q. Stranahan: With all the focus this campaign season on bloggers — and the unique insights they were supposed to provide for convention coverage — everybody seems to have forgotten about that long-time disseminator of the sounds and color of political conventions, radio. How have you attempted to bring to your listeners fresh coverage?
Mike Pesca: By talking to a blogger. Well, at least that’s what we led with in our coverage of the first night of the convention, Slate’s Mickey Kaus. My program, “Day to Day,” has an editorial partnership with Slate and we draw upon their writers, who in people like Will Saletan, and Chris Suellentrop, include some of the most incisive thinkers you’re going to hear anywhere. For my money, the tandem of Chris Caldwell and EJ Dionne, as featured wise men of NPR’s live coverage, also rock, a term that’s lost all sense of proportion after the sign “Cheney Rocks” was seen spotted on the convention floor.
The bloggers did get a lot of attention. The Democratic National Convention treated them like adorable pups; the Republican National Convention more like slightly older dogs who’ve wet the living room rug once too often to be considered cute. And really without those 35 credentialed bloggers at the DNC, I would have been starving for convention analysis. But at the RNC, the bloggers were located in one quiet corner of a burgeoning radio row. Talk radio was crackling during both conventions, and local public radio talk shows like Kitty Felde’s on KPCC in LA, and Brian Lehrer from WNYC in New York were great, just great….
I listened to a lot of Air America during the RNC, and Sean Hannity during the DNC. From them I learned that everything I was seeing was a lie and a sham — [or] a message of truth and hope for our troubled time, depending on the city and station.
But in general, radio might not have been singled out in the many stories about media, but I’d bet that most Americans heard more coverage of some sort on the radio than read a news story about the convention. In the case of NPR, we spent a lot of the listeners’ money on coverage and I think we got a lot out of it. Sending 30 producers, reporters, engineers and editors to Manhattan, setting up a broadcast facility and delivering top-flight journalism can’t be done on the cheap. Plus, Robert Seigal travels with a personal trainer, nutritionist, and groomer.
SQS: NPR’s “Day to Day” program is touted as being an edgier take on news coverage than its siblings “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” What kinds of stories are you looking for? What is the ideal mix between feature and hard news?
MP: Is there any word more off-putting than “edgy?” Especially to a public radio listener?
The idea, as was explained to me to get me to take the job at “Day to Day,” is that listeners really wanted something like “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” in the middle of the day. If you go out to lunch and tune in to your car radio at 12:09, and you’re deep into a discussion of the Law of the Sea Treaty that won’t end until the last fish is fried at 12:57, you feel disappointed. So, NPR wanted to create a news show, with shorter segments, but still more like NPR than headline news.
“Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” are what’s called “magazine shows,” but I think the phrase describes the fact that there are several different stories within each show, as opposed to another characteristic of good magazines: possessing a distinctive voice.
“Day to Day” is an effort to be a magazine show that has a voice, a voice that fits in with the overall NPR ideal of quality journalism, but something that doesn’t shy away from personality. Slate already has a voice, and lends us one of their voices everyday, so that’s part of it. But the telling detail isn’t that “Day to Day” shares Slate’s world view; it’s more that we share the idea that having a world view is a good thing.
As to what that world view is, that’s constantly evolving, but I’m pushing toward engaged multilaterlism with Calvinistic undertones and clear Hopi influences.
SQS: At the conventions, even with all the security and crowds, it’s probably easy to track down the Maine delegate wearing a lobster and moose hat, as you did in Boston. What reporting obstacles have you encountered while gathering your stories?
MP: Here was one — I wanted to shadow one of the sign runners, the young people who distribute signs to delegates so that when you hear “HOPE IS ON THE WAY” 3,000 people flash signs that read “HOPE IS ON THE WAY,” and at home you’re thinking – “How’d they know he was going to say that?” So the RNC official arranged it, my producer Rob Sachs got to Madison Square Garden, met with the press liaison. He said, “Go ahead, shadow away;” and all the sign people immediately said, “We can’t talk to the press.” That particular press person then turned around and said “Sorry, we never promised that they’d be allowed to say anything.” Perfect.
But mostly it’s that I think of a great story to do after I’ve already committed to doing something else. Like after Giuliani spoke, I heard nothing, nothing detailing the fact that he has a financial stake in convincing people that the way he sees the world is proper. Giuliani Partners hires itself out to foreign governments and Fortune 500 companies for security consulting. I’m sure they’re good at their jobs. I’m sure Rudy Giuliani spoke from the heart. I know there are tons of facts to back up many of his assertions about world safety. Still, a good story would have been nice, something asking the question “Was that speech that much different from the president of Pfizer addressing the convention on the issue of health care? A corrective to the general media incuriosity on this topic.
SQS: You’ve covered both conventions this summer. Which one was easier to report on and why? Which one was more fun?
MP: Easier? RNC. RNC. RNC. Number one, I live four blocks away. Two, you learn from your mistakes the first time. Three, the facilities are much, much better. Four, the DNC’s plan seemed to be to hand out floor passes like they were tickets to a Mets game and then just have the fire marshall close it down every night. No kidding. Stuff the joint, and then have capacity defined as the point at which 50% plus 1 of the attendees would survive a fire.
More fun? Uhhhmm. I love politics but these things are fun only in the sense that passing a physical is fun.
SQS: Final test. What is the only state with a unicameral legislature?
MP: Nebraska.
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.