Air Force One takeoffs are often a frantic moment for the reporters who travel with the president. You are loading onto the plane, stowing your bags, buckling in and then frantically dashing off a pool report documenting what the president did — or didn’t — say to the press before boarding. You’re trying to do all of that before the massive blue and white Boeing 747 steeply climbs into the sky and out of the range of cell service.
And for radio reporters like me, you’re often also trying to upload and share audio files of the president’s statements during that brief window of cell service. But whenever I traveled with President Biden during my time covering the White House, I always made sure to take a quiet moment of reflection right after that manic flurry. I would slip on headphones, make sure none of the other reporters could see my cell phone screen and pull up .
.. the theme of The West Wing .
Why? Because like so many other Millennials who now populate Washington, D.C., the late ‘90s/early aughts NBC drama was my entry point to the world of politics and government.
It was a key factor in pushing me in the direction of spending my life reporting on politics. And it was always worth it to pause for that moment of appreciation of how my life had ended up in a place where I was inhabiting a corner of the show's real-life world. I can still remember the first episode I ever watched (Season 2! Somebody’s Going To Emergency, Somebody’s Going To Jail ).
I reme.