Candidate conference calls

Dave Winer wants to listen to those daily conference calls the candidates have with reporters;

"It seems much of the real action in the campaign happens here, but we (voters, taxpayers, citizens) have no access. I listened to an MP3 of one of the calls, with the chief strategist and communications director of the Clinton campaign. It was fascinating, gave me a picture of how the press and the candidates relate that I had never seen before."

A few years ago I asked one of our reporters to post the audio of one of these conference calls where a bunch of reporters are on with the news-maker.  She was shocked that I asked and explained that the call was "just for reporters" and they decided which portions were news-worthy. And the reporters would not want "just anyone" to hear their questions.

I'm with Mr. Winer. I'd love to hear these calls, raw and unedited. I'll decide what's news and what's spin. No filtering, please. I have to wonder if some reporters might be concerned this could raise questions about their editorial judgment. What they decided to include in the story and what they left out. I fail to see how that could be a problem if their story ended with, "...you can listen to the entire conference call on our website."

Comments

[Dave Winer]

Thanks for the support.

I just posted another piece this morning, I'm going to keep beating the drum until we get the feed with the MP3s for all major campaigns.

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/02/21/campaignConferenceCallMp3s.html

BTW, you mention talking with one of your reporters. What publication??

[smays]

Holy RSS, Batman! Dave Winer.

Dave thought I was talking about a publication, but my anecdote was about one of our radio networks. And I don't think I'll mention which one because I think all of our newsrooms probably feel the same way, and the reporter in question is no longer working for us.