Managing the Narrative

The Candidate's 'Catch Me if You Can'
Reporters Following Hillary Clinton on the Campaign Trail Are Covered in Dust

National correspondents are increasingly frustrated by a lack of access to Clinton. They spend much of their time in rental cars chasing her from one event to the next, because the campaign usually provides no press bus or van. Life on the bus means journalists don't have to worry about luggage or directions or getting left behind, since they are part of the official motorcade. News organizations foot the bill for such transportation, but campaigns have to staff and coordinate the buses -- and deal with the constant presence of their chroniclers.

Clinton's not the only one managing the press narrative, just the most practiced at it. The last thing any of the top-tier candidates want is the kind of in-depth coverage displayed in, say, Hunter Thompson's outstanding Fear and Loathing on the Campign Trail '72. One can certainly knock the late Thompson for his personal bias (and personal failings) but he was blatant and open about it, and in his unique high-intensity style produced one of the most insightful campaign books ever written.

Part of the trouble is that Thompson and his approach were unique in 1972. The majority of the campaign coverage was the "pack journalism" described in Timothy Crouse's Boys on the Bus, also an excellent book. But today the buses are gone and everyone wants to be the new Thompson, and campaigns want to utterly control the narrative.