Categories: OLD Media Moves

How the biz media cover the Sun Valley media conference

Fox Business Network reporter Dennis Kneale writes Sunday about what it’s like to be a reporter covering the Sun Valley media conference this past week.

Kneale writes, “A platoon of security guards, alternately buff or buoyantly beer-bellied, stood watch to berate us whenever someone got out of line. On Day Two (Thursday), a morbidly obese crewcut yelled at us and threatened expulsion (though the resort is open to the public). Drunk with power, he did this twice within 30 minutes, setting off a jump-back response from a reporter staying on the grounds.

“When a scribe for The New York Times buttonholed Warren Buffett, an uninvited sentry stationed himself nearby and monitored every word, braced for intervention. At one point I asked the guards whether they were packing Tasers. ‘I just wanna be there to get the shot when Dennis gets arrested,’ one lensman wisecracked.

“As the elites emerge from sessions, most of them grim-faced and avoiding eye contact, reporters and photogs are permitted to stand behind a velvet rope cordoning off a narrow gauntlet on the opposite of the sidewalk. We implore A-listers to stop and chat, though Allen & Co. discourages them from complying.

“‘It’s the most undignified reporting assignment I’ve ever had,’ says one veteran journo, laughing at his lot as we obediently stayed in our place, inside the penalty box. At one point I snag a kindly lawyer who pleads, ‘Can we talk later tonight? I’m uncomfortable standing here talking to you.’

“‘Later tonight’ meant after 9 p.m. in the main lodge, where the swells hung out beyond our reach in a dark, blocked-off bar. We media types lingered just outside, longing to snag a few minutes with anyone of note who had to make a trip to the restroom in the lobby.”