ATV’s Chief White House Correspondent Geet Jeswani describes how ATV became part of the White House Press Corps and his experience from attending the press briefing.
On Wednesday, October 10, ATV sent two of its news reporters, Geet Jeswani and Matthew Carter, to cover the White House press briefing and report on-location from the White House. This expedition represents the first of what will become a regular opportunity for ATV’s student journalists to gain the unique experience of reporting on breaking news from the White House as a part of the White House press pool.
The effort for ATV to join the White House Press Corps only began as an idea in mid-September. Sophomore Geet Jeswani, political reporter for ATV News and co-host of ATV’s Capitol Politics, proposed the idea, and worked together with senior Josh Feldman, ATV’s Programming Director, to pursue it. They reached out to the White House Press Office and heard back within a matter of days, adding ATV to the White House Press Pool listserv, and coordinating details for ATV to send correspondents to cover press briefings and other press events.
Within ATV, a group of ATV producers, including ATV News co-producers Hoai-Tran Bui and Matthew Carter, began planning logistics and organizing an effort to make this opportunity available to many of ATV’s most-reputable news reporters.
Due to President Obama’s busy campaign schedule, October 10 marked the first opportunity in over two weeks to cover a press briefing taking place at the White House itself. Jeswani (now ATV’s new Chief White House Correspondent) and Carter headed to the White House early Wednesday, and had the opportunity to mingle with fellow journalists of national news organizations, and were given a tour of the White House press area.
The primary topic of this White House press briefing was on the Obama Administration’s response to last month’s attacks on the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Jeswani came prepared with a list of available questions to ask White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in case he was called on, though that didn’t occur at this briefing.
ATV is incredibly excited about this opportunity for us to actively begin reporting on news from the White House, taking advantage of the renowned reputation of American University and our Washington, D.C. location to provide us, as a student media organization, with this unparalleled chance for our members to report on news of national importance. Over the upcoming year, ATV will be working to further develop its White House credentials and expand the breadth of its news publication efforts, as well as working towards a goal of potentially becoming the first student media organization in the country to join the White House Correspondents Association.
ATV’s focus is on providing opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience working in an active and professional video production environment. We look forward to expanding this new White House Correspondence program as one of the many efforts we are actively working on to fulfill this purpose.
Questions? Contact Geet Jeswani or Josh Feldman for more information. We also invite you to Get Involved with ATV.