Survival of the Scribbling Class? By John Maggs
If terrorists attack a political convention, what set of people in the target zone will be the "cockroaches" -- that is, the creatures most likely to survive? Journalists.
In the gallons of ink spilled about supertight security at this year's conventions, what's rarely mentioned is that some news organizations prepared their reporting teams as if they were going to war.
One company alone, Centurion Risk-Assessment Services, provided survival training to eight news organizations, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the Chicago Tribune. The Knight Ridder newspaper chain insisted that all of the 40 or so employees it brought to Boston this week go through the Centurion training, according to Washington Bureau Chief Clark Hoyt.
"Bioterror, conventional explosives, dirty bombs, fragmentation bombs -- we cover it all," said Paul Reese, Centurion's managing director.
Hoyt said that Knight Ridder's convention team is also equipped with survival kits that include whistles, flashlights, goggles, and chemical/bioterror survival hoods. Associated Press reporters were given similar kits.
Unfortunately, the tight security around the convention center has clashed with the added protection that journalists are supposed to get from their survival gear. "Everything got confiscated at the security checkpoints," one reporter said. "They took a look at the whistles and thought we would use them for disrupting the speeches. They confiscated the flashlights as weapons. And they looked at the gas masks and said, 'Why the hell are you going to need these?' "
Hoyt acknowledged that plans for Knight Ridder staffers to keep the kits close at hand were foiled by the security rules. So, he instructed his people to keep their survival equipment in their hotels, which, he pointed out, are considered "soft targets" that might be attacked.
As the Democratic Convention glided Wednesday through another unterrifying day, some reporters said the survival training and chemical weapons hoods seemed over-the-top. "I know we're supposed to be prepared, but this isn't Falluja," one remarked. "You're talking about a bunch of fat, middle-aged people who aren't ready for war, so I don't think a day of training really matters."
The Bush administration said weeks ago that news media at the conventions might be targeted by domestic terrorist groups, but even the protests this week have been peaceful.