ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Two members of the St. Bonaventure alumni press corps were smack in the middle of the action at the GOP Convention in Tampa this past week.
Robert J. McCarthy, ’76, chief political reporter for the Buffalo News, and Allison Kropff, ’05, an anchor at CBS affiliate WTSP in Tampa, covered the convention for their respective news organizations.
“This is my 11th convention since first covering the Dems in NYC in 1992, and next week in Charlotte will be number 12. They are grueling, slogging 18-hour days that involve coverage of the New York delegation as well as writing the main story off the speech each night,” McCarthy reported from Tampa.
“But it's also the best experience for a political reporter. We have access to top political figures, and actually come up with some decent stories. Today (Thursday), Rudy Giuliani addressed the New York delegation, and made news by really ripping into Obama on national security issues.”
“This was my first time covering an event this big. The week was exciting, exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. There were so many angles to cover: security, politics, protesters, economic impact, traffic ... oh, and at the last minute, a tropical storm!” Kropff said.
“We were getting up at 1:15 a.m. and working until 2:00 p.m. putting on a live show from the Convention. While the hours were tough, it was a thrill to walk into the Tampa Bay Times Forum and see it transformed with a stage, national media sets and tight security. … It's a pretty cool feeling to know I had the opportunity to cover an event seen around the world and one which could shape the next four years.”
Any other SBU alums working the conventions? St. Bonaventure University Journalism and Mass Communication graduates are scattered across the land and we'd like to know if others worked the GOP Convention or are assigned to cover the Democratic Convention. Drop an email to Tom Donahue in University Relations: tdonahue@sbu.edu |