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Media
'overwhelming' to staff
By LORI
POTTER
Hub Staff Writer
KEARNEY — President Clinton's foreign
policy speech, the logistics for the presidential visit and
Kearney's role as host city all received high marks from members of
the Nebraska media Friday.
Allen Beermann, executive director of
the Nebraska Press Association, said 228 print and broadcast
journalists from the state and 55 from the national media group
traveling with the president on Air Force One or the separate press
plane received press credentials.
The Nebraska contingent represented
120 newspapers, 12 TV stations, 22 radio outlets and student
journalists from five colleges, five high schools and several
Kearney elementary schools.
"You could tell it was a good
atmosphere, because the Secret Service was relaxed," said Beermann,
whose experience includes five presidential visits to Nebraska.
He said that Shannan Guinn of the
White House press office told him the White House staff was
overwhelmed by the number of media people attending. Meanwhile,
people with the Secret Service and advance staff for the Kearney
visit talked about how smoothly the planning had gone.
"That's a tribute to Kearney, the
university and a lot of folks," Beermann said. "Everything has had
to happen so quickly."
The Nebraska media assembled between
6 and 7 a.m. at the Tri-City Arena to check in and receive media
passes. While a few went to Kearney Municipal Airport to cover the
landing of Air Force One, most journalists were taken by bus and
Kearney Trolley to UNK at about 8 a.m. The journalists passed
through a designated security check line and were limited during the
speech to a designated area across the gym from the
podium.
"It's the first time I've had the
chance to see a sitting president, and I didn't want to miss the
opportunity," said Barb Micek, editor of the weekly Nance County
Journal in Fullerton.
She said Clinton made it clear that
foreign policy should be of interest to everyone. "I learned a lot
from what he had to say," Micek said. "... It makes you want to pay
more attention."
Don Walton was part of a team of
three reporters and two photographers covering the event for the
Lincoln Journal-Star. His assignment was to write about the speech
and reaction to it.
He said the scope and breadth of the
speech was impressive and showed Clinton's intellect. Although the
president had prepared remarks, Walton said his delivery made it
clear that "much of it was coming from his head."
Although some people might have
thought Nebraska was an unusual place for a major foreign policy
speech, Walton said several members of the state's congressional
delegation serve on foreign policy committees. "And there's probably
no state that's more pro- trade," he added.
Beermann was impressed that Clinton
took a complex topic and made it understandable. "I thought it was a
history lesson worth two credit hours," Beermann said. "I thought he
brought the world to us."
Several journalists said the most
memorable statement was Clinton's call to not squander the best
moment in our history with small-mindedness.
Beermann said he has traveled to 30
to 35 foreign countries, so he understands the importance of the
foreign policy issues Clinton discussed. He believes that message
did translate well over broadcast and print media.
He said one sign that this was a
major presidential speech was the close attention paid to it by the
national media. "It may be that what he was saying was his last,
best foreign policy speech," Beermann said.
The role of journalists covering the
speech was to "let all the other citizens share in this day," he
said.
"I think Kearney has done a super
job," Walton said. "I'll bet you (Clinton) really enjoyed it,
especially when he talked about the schoolchildren along the route."
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