We got the idea for this week’s “Navel Gazing” from this story by NPR White House reporter Ari Shapiro about not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance at a Romney campaign event.
We discuss Shapiro’s reasoning — reporters are at such events as observers, not participants, he says — and the reaction to it, as well as our own feelings about reciting the pledge.
The story also opens up the issue of how reporters should behave in general while covering meetings and other events, and we talk about our attitudes — and how those attitudes have changed over the years — toward that question, too.
Finally, we wrap up by talking about how the Valley Indy is adjusting two months after the departure of a third of our work force.
By remaining seated and evoking predictable reactions from attendees the reporter is by defininition becoming part of the story. It is either narcissistic or stupid in the sense that blending in and not being noticed much is really the object and he either can’t bring himself do what professionally he should or can’t see something that is obvious.