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| So Close and Yet So Far Away: Covering Michelle Obama | So Close and Yet So Far Away: Covering Michelle Obama |
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| Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. In this article, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a Times White House correspondent, shares what counts as “major access” in the tightly controlled world of this beloved first lady. | Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. In this article, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a Times White House correspondent, shares what counts as “major access” in the tightly controlled world of this beloved first lady. |
| WASHINGTON — When I first set to work on a long piece about Michelle Obama’s emergence as an unlikely campaign superstar, I had brief visions of boarding her private government jet, photographer in tow, to accompany her to rallies in battleground states, or sitting down with her in her elegant East Wing office for a revealing chat. | WASHINGTON — When I first set to work on a long piece about Michelle Obama’s emergence as an unlikely campaign superstar, I had brief visions of boarding her private government jet, photographer in tow, to accompany her to rallies in battleground states, or sitting down with her in her elegant East Wing office for a revealing chat. |
| I knew it was a long shot, and I was right. | I knew it was a long shot, and I was right. |
| It quickly became clear that there would be no interview with Mrs. Obama for the story, no witnessing of behind-the-scenes moments on the campaign trail with her and her small circle of aides, no real firsthand access to this pivotal moment in her evolution as a public figure. Her staff would not allow it. | It quickly became clear that there would be no interview with Mrs. Obama for the story, no witnessing of behind-the-scenes moments on the campaign trail with her and her small circle of aides, no real firsthand access to this pivotal moment in her evolution as a public figure. Her staff would not allow it. |
| I should not have been surprised. After all, this is a woman who, despite her frequent appearances in fashion magazines and on daytime and late-night television talk shows, has rarely sat for an interview with a newspaper reporter. (My Times colleague Jodi Kantor, whose revealing book “The Obamas” helped inform the reporting for my own story, has been among the only exceptions.) | I should not have been surprised. After all, this is a woman who, despite her frequent appearances in fashion magazines and on daytime and late-night television talk shows, has rarely sat for an interview with a newspaper reporter. (My Times colleague Jodi Kantor, whose revealing book “The Obamas” helped inform the reporting for my own story, has been among the only exceptions.) |
| Mrs. Obama’s staff, fiercely loyal to her and ever-anxious about any unwanted attention directed her way, runs her press office like a cross between a Hollywood public relations shop and a corporate crisis communications firm. Most of the time, they are cheerfully promoting the first lady’s public appearances and her agenda, like the dedication last month of her White House kitchen garden or her cameo on The Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” with Ina Garten. The rest of the time, they are working ferociously to talk reporters out of writing about Mrs. Obama’s personal life and the activities of her teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha, or apologizing politely but firmly for refusing to provide even the thinnest scrap of information about the inner workings of the East Wing. | Mrs. Obama’s staff, fiercely loyal to her and ever-anxious about any unwanted attention directed her way, runs her press office like a cross between a Hollywood public relations shop and a corporate crisis communications firm. Most of the time, they are cheerfully promoting the first lady’s public appearances and her agenda, like the dedication last month of her White House kitchen garden or her cameo on The Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” with Ina Garten. The rest of the time, they are working ferociously to talk reporters out of writing about Mrs. Obama’s personal life and the activities of her teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha, or apologizing politely but firmly for refusing to provide even the thinnest scrap of information about the inner workings of the East Wing. |
| So I resolved to get as close to Mrs. Obama as I could without actually gaining access to her. I traveled to each of her campaign rallies — from Fairfax, Va., to Manchester, N.H., to Phoenix, to Greensboro, N.C. — and watched her speeches. I made sure to arrive early and speak to as many attendees as I could, to get a sense of what people thought of Mrs. Obama and what was drawing them to her message. I stood on chairs on press risers to get a better view of her greeting supporters after she finished speaking, and leaning in for hugs and selfies, and I watched how they responded to her. | So I resolved to get as close to Mrs. Obama as I could without actually gaining access to her. I traveled to each of her campaign rallies — from Fairfax, Va., to Manchester, N.H., to Phoenix, to Greensboro, N.C. — and watched her speeches. I made sure to arrive early and speak to as many attendees as I could, to get a sense of what people thought of Mrs. Obama and what was drawing them to her message. I stood on chairs on press risers to get a better view of her greeting supporters after she finished speaking, and leaning in for hugs and selfies, and I watched how they responded to her. |
| While it was clear I was not getting anywhere near Mrs. Obama or her plane, her aides did arrange for me to speak to some of the people at the White House who know her best, including Melissa Winter, her deputy chief of staff since 2007, and Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas’ longtime friend and confidante who serves as the president’s senior adviser. They also shared information about the flood of emails from Americans across the country that Mrs. Obama had received in response to her speech in Manchester on Donald J. Trump and women, a pivotal moment in the campaign and in her own political evolution. | |
| In the tightly controlled world of the East Wing, that counts as major access. | In the tightly controlled world of the East Wing, that counts as major access. |
| I also interviewed several others who have worked with or known Mrs. Obama and could help me put together a fuller portrait of the woman and what motivates, pleases and frustrates her. Many of them did so only very reluctantly and most on the condition that they would not be quoted by name. One beseeched me not to ever let on to Mrs. Obama’s staff that I had spoken to her, even off the record. The fact that Mrs. Obama inspires this kind of devotion — and, yes, fear — told me something about her as well. | I also interviewed several others who have worked with or known Mrs. Obama and could help me put together a fuller portrait of the woman and what motivates, pleases and frustrates her. Many of them did so only very reluctantly and most on the condition that they would not be quoted by name. One beseeched me not to ever let on to Mrs. Obama’s staff that I had spoken to her, even off the record. The fact that Mrs. Obama inspires this kind of devotion — and, yes, fear — told me something about her as well. |
| White House correspondents who cover the president daily have a phrase for the experience of traveling with the commander in chief as part of the press pool. They are “in the bubble,” meaning that they move within the president’s security perimeter and follow his every move — although at a remove — riding in the same motorcade as he does (in a van, several car lengths from his armored limousine) and on Air Force One (in the very back, walled off from his cabin). | White House correspondents who cover the president daily have a phrase for the experience of traveling with the commander in chief as part of the press pool. They are “in the bubble,” meaning that they move within the president’s security perimeter and follow his every move — although at a remove — riding in the same motorcade as he does (in a van, several car lengths from his armored limousine) and on Air Force One (in the very back, walled off from his cabin). |
| Being in the bubble gives you a sense, however remote or choreographed, of what the president is doing and seeing as he travels and interacts with people. It enables you to pick up telling bits of color or snatches of conversation, and to glimpse his mood in unscripted moments. | Being in the bubble gives you a sense, however remote or choreographed, of what the president is doing and seeing as he travels and interacts with people. It enables you to pick up telling bits of color or snatches of conversation, and to glimpse his mood in unscripted moments. |
| For now, at least, there is no getting inside Mrs. Obama’s bubble. And that is just the way she wants it. | For now, at least, there is no getting inside Mrs. Obama’s bubble. And that is just the way she wants it. |