Foreign Press See U.S. Conventions Through a Different Lens

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/3234/week_3/06202012_maria-pena_jpg_300.jpg

Maria Peña is a correspondent for EFE, a Spanish multimedia news agency.

Washington — International journalists who report on the U.S. political conventions recently shared the challenges and frustrations of explaining a complicated political process when politicians and pundits are more interested in scoring points with U.S. voters than reaching out to foreign audiences.

“U.S. officials don’t quite get why it’s important to reach out to foreign outlets, and frankly, in seeking votes and financial support, they tailor their message to a domestic audience,” said Maria Peña, a Washington-based correspondent for EFE, a Spanish news agency.

Nevertheless, it’s important for international journalists to be inside the convention halls to explain the nomination process “as well as the controversies that arise in each election cycle,” Peña said in an email. “There’s no substitute for being there.”

She will be covering the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, in August.

“It’s very, very important to be at the conventions,” said Pablo Pardo, deputy bureau chief of El Mundo in Washington. “Otherwise you get the speeches through the TV, but nothing else.”

But he cautioned journalists against assuming that politicians and delegates who participate in political conventions are typical of everyone in their party.

“They are the core — they’re very, very committed — so you have to be careful not to think that the whole Republican Party or the whole Democratic Party is like them.”

Peña and Pardo said their news organizations probably have better access to U.S. officials than some other foreign media outlets because the political parties are eager to reach Hispanic Americans, a key voter demographic in the 2012 elections.

EFE covers the Hispanic community, Peña said, and its articles “get picked up by all major Spanish-language media outlets” in the United States. (EFE also publishes in English.) Pardo said El Mundo’s website “has a readership in Florida, Texas and California,” as well as other states with large Hispanic populations.

A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT U.S. POLITICS

Both journalists said they are focusing on the Republican convention this cycle because it might produce more interesting news, as well as some surprises.

“It seemed to me that the Democratic one would be a lot more predictable,” said Peña.

 

Pardo said he is interested in the issue of Medicaid and other entitlement programs, which he expects to be discussed in Tampa.

Approximately 6,000 foreign journalists covered the conventions in 2008, according to the State Department’s Foreign Press Center. Many media outlets, including EFE and El Mundo, sent one team to cover the Democrats and another team the Republicans.

Political conventions “are mainly designed for TV,” Pardo said. He thinks that’s why the most controversial speakers are often scheduled for the morning or early afternoon. “As the day advances, they have the more mainstream political figures speak so they’ll match up with the big networks’ [prime time] coverage.”

He said that at the 2004 and 2008 Republican conventions, the delegates were very friendly, but also surprised to see him.

“They said, ‘You’re from Spain, what are you doing here?’ It’s like they really don’t understand that this is an event that is interesting all over the world.”

He recalled the delegates’ reaction to vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008. “At the beginning, nobody knew her. There was a big degree of uncertainty. Then after her speech, everybody was so excited about her.”

Peña, for whom Tampa will be her first national convention assignment, said she believes that international journalists have an important role to play in covering American politics.

“Decisions made in Washington, especially regarding trade, immigration or foreign assistance, have a clear impact abroad, and U.S. allies throughout the Americas are interested in learning about these through the media.“

She added that many Hispanic voters “keep in touch with relatives and friends back in their home countries and are interested in U.S. foreign policy matters.” Even though noncitizens outside the United States do not vote in U.S. elections, “they sure can influence those naturalized citizens who can and do [vote].”

Peña has covered three presidential elections. In 2008, she interviewed candidate Barack Obama, who was “actively courting the Hispanic vote. I remember it as a very revealing interview about him as a very driven politician.”

She also recalled when candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton withdrew from the presidential race after losing in the primaries to Obama.

“I was somewhat surprised to see many people in heartfelt tears, loudly chanting her name,” Peña said. “The memory of tear-stained faces has stayed with me, and I guess it’s because there had been a lot of talk about how Clinton was a polarizing figure, but that crowd told a different story.”