Watching the detectives, uh, the media

Today my job at the rally featuring GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is watching the media. There are several levels of media here -- the embedded journalists following Palin around the country will arrive with her motorcade.

They and all the rest of us are corralled into a central position on the main floor. I'm sitting next to AP photographer Jeff Roberson, who tells me he carries three Canon cameras, each with a different lense (so he doesn't have to waste time changes lenses).

I asked what he expects and he says, "I never expect anything." He's ready for everything.

Most members of the media had to be ready to go without some amount of sleep. The Southeast Missourian reporters rolled out of bed between 4 and 5 a.m. and were here at the Show Me Center shortly after that.

We knew we had to get in early to find seats, but first we had to get through a security check. Media folks are lucky in the sense that we were given a slightly different entrance -- which we shared with concession volunteers and members of the Mike Renick band and some folks with disabilities

Secret Service folks checked our bags. Cameras on, cell phones on, any electronics (with the exception of laptops, though they gave mine battered old Dell a pretty good going over. Secret Service workers have been unfailingly polite to me. I spoke with several last night, having come out to get the lay of the land and plan for today.

Other reporters ran into some hiccups -- those who brought coffee had to pitch it before entering the building and a Southern Illinoisan photographer Chuck Movara lost a pocketknife that he's carried for three years -- a gift from his brother in law. Initally upset, he told me later that he should have known better, but just forgot, as it is so much a part of what he carries. He may get it back later. I think all the confiscated items like that are being turned into the Show Me Center folks.

Roberson had no such problems, but as he said, "I've been through this rodeo before."

He said the rules for covering big events are simple: "Be polite and dont' bring anything that can hurt anybody."

In my next post, a look at the range of media folk here (we'll probably end up with close to 50 in our corral, I estimate.