Many of the thousands of national and international reporters who have swamped inaugural planners with requests for credentials for Barack Obama’s swearing-in will likely be out of luck.
And the ones who make the cut may find themselves camping out at their offices the night before just to get the story.
“I had no idea there are so many daily papers in America, and every one of them has applied,” said Joe Keenan, superintendent of the Senate Press Gallery, which is responsible for handing out media credentials for the inaugural ceremonies.
Keenan’s team is expecting about 5,000 requests for daily print media alone, about triple the number of inaugurations past.
Asked from how far afield requests have come, Keenan threw his hands up.
“From El Dorado, Ark., to Belarus,” he said. “Name a country.”
Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said not everyone who requests a pass should expect to receive one.
“We’re hoping outlets will be smart about this and not request 10 credentials,” Florman said. Oftentimes, newspapers send several reporters to big events to cull diverse stories.
“It’ll be more like one,” Florman said.
But veteran reporters expect no lack of coverage for the waiting world, despite rejections for a front-row seat, or a backstage pass for Obama’s inaugural luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
“The inauguration is like a journalist’s theme park,” said David Lightman, a correspondent with the McClatchy Washington Bureau who has covered every presidential campaign since 1980.
“There will be millions of people to talk to, and millions of story ideas.”
Jim Carroll, a Washington correspondent for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, said getting around the city could pose the greater obstacle than snagging a press pass.
“The challenge won’t be the journalism, but the logistics,” Carroll said. “The stories will take care of themselves.”
Like many of his colleagues, Carroll is considering camping out in his downtown office on the night of Jan. 19 to avoid nightmarish congestion coming from his home in Alexandria.
Florman said reporters who receive a pass inside the ticketed viewing area, between the west lawn of the Capitol and Fourth Street Northwest should arrive by 6 a.m. at the latest to go through security.
The Constitution dictates that Obama must be sworn in by noon, whether reporters have fought to the front or not, Florman said.
“The only people we really need to have there are the chief justice and the president-elect.”
