August 2016: Women journalists on the campaign trail

You may have noticed there’s an election going on.

Many of us are covering it at some level; most of us are talking about it.

JAWS members Jodi Enda at CNN, Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times, Caitlin Huey-Burns and others are out on the campaign trail. Joanne Bamberger edited the book “Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox” and is often seen commenting on the election (though not seen often enough). Meanwhile JAWS board member Angela Greiling Keane continues to stalk, I mean, cover the current president for Bloomberg News. Even I have been to see Donald Trump in New Mexico and Colorado.

There’s been plenty of coverage of the women journalists on the campaign trail — in Vogue, Politico, Elle and more. The recent Marie Claire piece by NBC’s Katy Tur captured the turmoil of this year’s presidential election from a reporter’s vantage point.

In October, CAMP — Conference and Mentoring Project — will be a brief respite from the campaign trail for some of us. The keynote speakers and panels will offer a positive look at our profession, from Solutions Journalism to covering difficult topics like mass shootings to moving up to leadership in the newsroom.

And we will be talking politics. We’ll have a panel talking about lessons learned from this campaign, offering ideas about how to cover what happens after Nov. 8.

You can register for CAMP at the regular rate until Sept. 15.

In the meantime, keep in mind that opinions vary and nerves are a bit frayed this time of year, as Melissa Ludkte so eloquently wrote earlier this month.

As journalists, many of us try our best to avoid voicing opinions in this season. As a nonprofit, JAWS doesn’t take political stances.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share links to your election stories and op-eds on our email list. But we would ask that you continue to refrain from engaging in political debates on the list.

And enjoy the campaign trail if you’re on it!

– Sandra Fish, JAWS President