My Alma Mater: Press Corps
Brian Costello learned how to cover politics as a reporter at The Daily Illini. (Image courtesy of Brian Costello)
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was all smiles, looking at the PBS cameras, checking her mic, and making final preparations for that night’s debate. “Who’s playing my husband?” she joked, as I introduced myself and shook her hand.
It was Dec. 19, 2019, and we were getting ready for the Democratic National Committee’s Presidential Candidate Debate at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. As coordinator of the debate’s media center, I had direct access to all the candidates, including Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang, and I got to ask them questions and sit in on their post-debate interviews with anchors from CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and local affiliates.
That level of access was the polar opposite of my first experience covering presidential politics: the Jan. 28, 1998, visit to the U. of I. by President Bill Clinton.
As a senior reporter and member of The Daily Illini’s editorial board, I had interviewed political luminaries (including Dick Durbin, during his first Senate run), and I expected Q&A time with President Clinton. But just days ahead of his appearance, news reports began to surface regarding his alleged affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton’s visit to campus suddenly took on international importance, and media outlets from all over the world flocked to Champaign-Urbana. It seemed that the local press might get crowded out by the bigger names. Nevertheless, every major TV station in Chicago descended on The Daily Illini’s headquarters—a one-time stereo shop on Green Street with a façade of translucent plastic—wanting to know our plan of attack.
However, in the end, no one from the local press was allowed to interview Clinton.
As the DI reporter assigned to the presidential motorcade, I made up for that hole in our story by covering scene-setters of students’ and local residents’ reactions, including a funny sign in front of the Shurts House Bed & Breakfast that read, “Bill Clinton Did Not Sleep Here.” And I focused on the star-studded array of national reporters who covered the visit, including ABC’s Sam Donaldson, who was cheered by students everywhere he went.
Though Clinton’s visit did not teach me how to interview a president, it did teach me to be prepared for anything when covering politics. That is a lesson I have applied again and again throughout my career, whether I’m interviewing governors, senators or, more recently, so-called Nazi hunter Eli Rosenbaum [about his pursuit of Russians in America who were accused of genocide against Ukrainians]. In the process, I’ve learned to be adaptable, to be light on my feet, to know when to press, and when to back off.
I learned those skills because of my time at the U. of I., and they’ve never steered me wrong.
Brian Costello was a four-year staffer of The Daily Illini. He is director of marketing and communications at Loyola Marymount law school.
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