Interesting debate going on in Miami over the Miami Herald’s decision to pay $50 to get a reporter into a closed Hillary fundraiser.
Lots of readers thought it was sacrilege. And one suggested, rather cannily, that the paper simply throw $50 at every other candidate to avoid the appearance of partiality. Kudos to the MH for discussing this stuff publicly – because a number of papers (not us) have been doing this for years and NOT telling the reader.
Virtues and vices aside, the truth is that paying to get in is almost always unnecessary for the following reasons.
1. It’s nice to be standing there with a tape recorder. But reporters who seriously cover campaigns always have someone on the inside to tell them what the candidate said – and we clue them to focus in on remembering key one-to-three-word phrases so we can reconstruct the crucial parts of a quote.
2. Political donors aren’t publicity-shy – they like the world to know about their generosity – so if you stand outside and ask enough people, someone will tell you what happened.
3. $50 doesn’t get you into a room where news gets made -- $1,000 does.
Glenn Thrush