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American Morning

Congress Challenging Environment for Journalists

Aired May 31, 2002 - 09:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back here in the nation's capitol, politicians often make deals and write laws based on meetings in back rooms with people we never get to see. And as you can imagine, all this behind-the-scenes work can make covering Congress a challenging assignment. No one knows this better than our own Congressional Correspondent Kate Snow, who joins us me now.

Nice digs here.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

ZAHN: Thank you.

SNOW: Welcome to my world.

ZAHN: Yes, too bad this isn't a balcony where you get to perch your computer every day.

SNOW: Yes, but we are here a lot. We use this live shot location a lot, so -- you know, we wanted to tell you a little bit about what it's like to cover this place, and I think there's an appropriate anecdote. There's a congressman, J.C. Watts, who, after 9/11 last fall, told a story about walking up to this place every day. He lives nearby, and he said, I walk towards the Capitol, and I look up at that dome and it is just striking. It just hits you that I go to work at the Capitol building, and as a journalist, it sounds kind of hokey, but the same feeling hits you. I come in here every day, and go inside this beautiful dome that represents democracy and cover this place. It's a pretty cool job. We took a little time yesterday to give you a little bit of a tour behind the cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (on camera): So, this is where you often see me doing live shots from -- we call this the elm tree location -- it's one of the oldest trees on the Capitol grounds. You see right now, it's surrounded by protective fencing, and a lot of construction going on here. That is because they are building a brand new visitors center. It is going to be buried underground, under this plaza.

Now every day, I weave through all this the construction, head on into the Capitol building, and up to the third floor.

We are right across the hall now from the House chamber. It's really quiet in here now because Congress is out of session. Normally, we would walk the halls, looking to talk to law makers, or if we are not doing that, this is where the radio and TV people hang out.

There is a studio here where members of Congress can hold press conferences. You've probably seen this part on TV before, but check out where the press sit here in the chairs, and then the cameras are up there on those back risers, and the members of Congress would stand on this sort of stage up here behind this podium, they have this nice set of books right behind them, but really they're nothing more than props. All the books are cut in half.

When they built this part of the Capitol building back in the 1850s, they really weren't thinking about making room for radio or television. So later, they had to add this sort of half-floor up here to make room for all the TV people. We have the competition here. CBS News, NBC, ABC right there, and then this is the CNN booth right here. It is not exactly glamorous in here, it's pretty small. This is where I would normally sit, be on the phone all the time, and this is where Ted Barrett (ph), our producer, would be, but he's at the beach.

We will wrap it up in the basement of the Capitol. This is the cafeteria where we come to get lunch every day. It's like a maze down here. In fact, the first few weeks I worked here, I got lost every day. But this is the way to the tunnel that takes you over to the Cannon Building.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And of course, the Cannon Building is where we are right now, so where I was was sort of straight behind us there, and there are tunnels -- I think a lot of people don't know this, there are tunnels that connect all of these the buildings together. So, you could live here, work, and go underground, and really never have to come above ground.

ZAHN: And you can either walk or can use the little...

SNOW: There is subways -- yes.

ZAHN: The subway system. I understand your producer is a little challenged when he tries to work in your office. He has the scars to prove it.

SNOW: Yes. He's 6-foot-3. Poor guy, he is not here to defend himself. He is on vacation. But he is 6-foot-3, he hits his head. You couldn't really tell in that shot, but the office ceiling is about 6-foot tall, so he hits his head on the sprinkler all the time.

ZAHN: Giving this little message here, hazardous duty pay for Kate Snow and her producer.

SNOW: He does a great job, he does a great job.

ZAHN: You both do a great job. Great to see you. Nice to be in your town...

SNOW: Nice to see you, too.

ZAHN: ... on such a glorious spring day, last day here of May.

SNOW: Beautiful.

ZAHN: Have a good weekend.

SNOW: Thanks.

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