Photo credit: Jeff Green for POLITICO
Before her campaign kicks into high gear, Politico gathered 18 women journalists who are all covering Hillary Clinton‘s run for the White House. Since all of them were in Las Vegas last week for the first democratic primary debate, Politico got this photo to accompany Hadas Gold‘s story on the campaign rarity: an overwhelmingly female press corps. They include TV news reporters Andrea Mitchell and Monica Alba of NBC News; Nancy Cordes and Hannah Fraser-Chanpong of CBS News; Liz Kreutz of ABC News; Brianna Keilar of CNN and Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News. (Fox News’s Tamara Gitt is also covering the campaign, but couldn’t make the photo shoot).
The New York Times’ Amy Chozick was one of the few women among Clinton’s traveling press corps during her 2008 run. What’s changed this time?
The change seems to be a combination of more women doing political reporting in general, and many more being drawn to Clinton’s potentially historic candidacy. It’s made for an unusual atmosphere, with a female candidate sparring with a nearly all-female corps of reporters. It hasn’t brought Clinton more positive coverage, according to those both inside the campaign and outside it. But reporters and press aides alike note that there’s a different vibe nonetheless, punctuated by occasional expressions by the candidate herself of camaraderie for fellow pioneers.