Hurricane Gustav, , has cast a thousand-mile shadow all the way to St Paul, Minnesota, where the Republican convention opens/opened in curtailed and subdued session. Organisers are anxious not to be seen having a party while fellow Americans are losing their homes in a deluge. Convention proceedings are being kept to a constitutional minimum until the full extent of Gustav's wrath is known.
The US news networks, which provided round-the-clock coverage of last week's Democratic Party events, have a headache. To ensure a measure of balance they want to give similar prominence to the Republican event, but key correspondents and senior anchors have been redeployed south. Vast swathes of air time are going to catalogue Gustav's progress in minute, and sometimes morbid, detail, squeezing the time available for the events in St Paul. Politicians vie with meteorologists for the best slots.
US news shows adore weather stories - gung-ho reporters, excited, soaking wet and almost impossible to hear in the storm's fury, push themselves to the very edge of what safety and common sense would dictate, to show how bad things are. For some, it's news coverage at its sexiest, it's certainly difficult for a politician making a stump speech to compete.
The initial Republican response to the challenge has been sober and practical, reflecting the mood in the South. Convention organisers have made Gustav part of the narrative in the Twin Cities - the hurricane is setting the tone for the week. John McCain must be all too aware of Katrina's effect on the Bush presidency - he will not want Gustav to taint his campaign for the White House.
So prepare for a subdued and purposeful week for the Republicans. It's likely the streamers and the balloons suspended in their thousands from the ceiling of the convention venue, designed to add a festive tone to McCain's anointment as presidential nominee, will stay firmly in their nets until the gavel in St Paul comes down for the last time and the delegates have headed home.
The was re-dedicated on Friday in Washington. I helped read out a roll call of more than 1,800 journalists from all over the world who have been killed in the line of duty since 1860.
Another 92 names have been added to the memorial, making 2007 a dismal year for the . Their names have been added to a soaring wall of etched glass panels inside the , a glitzy, hi-tech tribute to journalism which opens next week just down the road from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
As I listened to the lengthening roll call, a bell tolling after each name, I reflected on those journalists who have paid the ultimate price, just for doing their jobs. Some were my friends, some were rivals, and some were both.
I thought of my colleagues currently hard at work in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Zimbabwe….
Journalists are often characterized as grasping, petty individuals who would sell their grandmother to get the latest forgettable gossip about a Hollywood D-lister. But Friday’s ceremony reminds us all of the worthy side of our profession.
With the dust settled on the , the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ teams have returned to Washington to regroup. But with the Democratic race in such delicate balance, it's clear we'll only have a short respite before we're back on the road again.
The was always going to be the principal element of American coverage this year, indeed one of the world's biggest diary stories in 2008. But the gripping race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is surpassing all expectations.
Within the States, the quantity and quality of election coverage has been a subject of discussion this week - the bemoaned the fact that US networks failed to break their schedules on Tuesday evening to cover the results and left the breaking coverage to cable news stations. In that respect, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ America's special results programme, which was simulcast on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ World and News 24, received an approving mention.
Our challenge on major US stories is to cover for our world audiences with clarity and authority, without appearing simplistic or condescending to our increasing legions of US-based online readers, viewers and listeners. It's also vital for us to get beyond the Democratic horse race to deal with the real issues of the election - Iraq, health care and the economy to name just a few. Matt Frei's moody report this week on is an example of how we're doing this.
But it's a long haul and for the time being, the race for the Democratic nomination dominates air time and column inches. We are now turning our attention not only to states where primaries and caucuses are yet to be held, but also to the mysterious world of the super-delegates - the party grandees who now hold the fate of Obama and Clinton in their hands. The super-delegates are already relishing the limelight - expect their role as king- (or queen-) makers to be a key element of our coverage in the weeks to come.
So it’s all over bar the shouting – the US midterms have transformed politics in Washington, and President Bush must add a new phrase to his political vocabulary – bipartisan cooperation.
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳’s team in Washington, winding down after a week surviving on black coffee and adrenalin, are taking stock of the new landscape. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the new stars of Washington’s political constellation. It remains to be seen just how well soon-to-be House Speaker Pelosi and the presumed Senate Majority Leader Reid will work with President Bush.
But what next? The departure of Donald Rumsfeld puts the spotlight back on the President’s Iraq policy and how it might change. The independent Iraq Study Group has been charged with finding new ideas – it’s expected to report in early December. New ideas are urgently needed.
The long thinkers are already looking to 2008 and which political figures have burnished their presidential ambitions during the midterm campaign. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is still the odds-on favourite to take her party’s nomination, although Barack Obama is a long bet.
The picture is far less clear on the Republican side -- it’s much easier to point to White House hopefuls who have crashed and burned in recent months. So who’s left in the field? Arizona Senator John McCain is still standing, and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has a strong following.
The next two years will be fascinating. Any viewers, listeners or readers who might wonder why the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has devoted such energy and time this week to reports from the US, need only consider how wide the implications of this week's events might be - not just the US, but Iraq, the wider Middle East, the UK - and perhaps even the premiership of Tony Blair.
The in rural Pennsylvania has brought the peaceful community of Nickel Mines into the world's eye for all the worst reasons. The small Amish community has been besieged by the media after a milk-truck driver shot 12 pupils in a small schoolhouse before turning the gun on himself.
The Amish are a reclusive people who advocate pacifism and shun modern life. They do not use electricity and have no television, radio, or computer at home. They prefer to live outside the mainstream, involved in their own world. So the hubbub and trappings of a big story - satellite trucks, film crews, hovering helicopters and 24-hour live shots - have been a further unwelcome jolt to a community already devastated by the horror of random death.
Filming and interviewing the victims of war and violent acts is always a daunting challenge. In this story we raised our threshold, to ensure we respected the views of a grieving community where cameras are barely welcome. Those who were interviewed were willing to do so. Despite the horror, the locals almost unbelievably spoke of forgiveness and redemption. One interviewee wanted to express his views but had qualms about the camera. In the end he agreed to be filmed from a distance that would make him hard to be identified.
But those who didn't want to speak were left alone. In the end we got the story, while respecting the wishes of the local community. I hope we gained their respect too.
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s editorial guidelines state we must always balance public interest against the need to be compassionate and to avoid any unjustified infringement of privacy. As we move on from Nickel Mines and leave the Amish community to grieve in peace, I'm satisfied that this time, despite the difficulties, we achieved the right balance.
In America, the Labor Day holiday has been and gone, marking the end of the summer. According to the etiquette of a bygone era, white shoes and gloves should no longer be worn in polite society until next May.
But as Washington’s political elite return to their desks after a summer at the beach, the gloves are coming off for a different reason. Serious campaigning starts now for the November 7 mid-term elections.
In the mid-terms, the entire House of Representatives, a third of the nation’s senatorships and 36 of the 50 state governorships are up for grabs. President Bush’s name is not on any ballot, but these elections are nevertheless a litmus test of his popularity.
His current ratings are near rock-bottom, so canny Republicans are wary of close association and Democrats scent blood. But it’s not all plain sailing for the opposition either – it’ll be tough for the Democratic Party to gain control in either House of Congress. A close fight is in prospect.
It’s a blessing to see the American media drifting back to a serious news agenda after a very silly summer season indeed. Despite bloody upheaval in the Middle East, most news editors have opted for much lighter fare – new developments in a lurid and unsolved case of a child beauty queen’s murder, the arrest of a polygamous religious sect leader and the breathless tracking of a hurricane which blew itself out even before reaching the US coast.
Although I may eat my words when, as November approaches, we find ourselves neck deep in campaign ads, shrill political lobbying and the braying tones of an American political campaign in full flow. I may find a new attraction for weather stories.
Every morning I wake up to an inbox stuffed with news releases, official statements and the usual load of 'unmissable' bargains offering to make me a million or two.
Most of it never makes it past the delete button. The convenience of the internet means I'm reached just as easily by government departments, official spokespeople, snake-oil salesmen, conspiracy theorists and outright loonies. Being based in the United States means that I probably get more than most from all of the above.
The American sultans of spin would give Alastair Campbell a run for his money, so I read any official release with a sceptical eye, trying to root out the inconvenient fact or the concealed truth buried in the eighth paragraph. News releases give a convenient heads-up, but it's lazy journalism to swallow their contents hook, line and sinker just because it comes from a 'respectable' source.
Similarly, there are many bloggers and commentators out there who go to great lengths to convince the world that Elvis is alive, George Bush was born in Nicaragua or aliens are alive in the Nevada desert. It would be rash to believe any of these theories, but what about claims of government-sponsored massacre in a distant part of the world? Or a junior clerk blowing the whistle on a multinational? Or abuse of women in an ethnic community in New York? Possibly such stories come from a disgruntled employee, or a government malcontent. But again, possibly not...
The argument rages over what we as editors should take seriously in the 'stuff' out there in the blogosphere, and what we should discount. To me, the answer seems rooted in our basic training as journalists. A sceptical eye is necessary, together with oodles of commonsense, and of course a load of fact-checking using trusted sources.
Just because it's a government department doesn't mean that it's necessarily the whole truth. And just because it's an anonymous source with a jaw-dropping claim doesn't mean that it's not.
