Traditional press fuming over DNC seating in Chicago for Kamala Harris’s convention

CHICAGO — Press arriving at the Democratic National Convention found the number of traditional press workspace seats gutted from previous conventions and instead a state-of-the-art riser constructed for TikTokers.

The United Center, where Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the nomination, credentialed 200 social media influencers and built a “first-ever creator platform” directly on the convention floor to give them a front-row seat and direct access to the action. 

In turn, traditional print and wire service media were assigned 47 press stand seats equipped with nonstadium chairs, a desk, internet, and power. The result was too many journalists and not enough seats in the arena.

In comparison, at the Republican National Convention last month, daily press and periodical journalists had access to 360 work stand seats at the smaller Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. In 2016, at the Democratic National Convention when Hillary Clinton accepted the nomination, press had about 230 workspaces in the arena. 

“Never has the press been given the type of seating that they have now,” said Pittsburgh Post-Gazette deputy managing editor for politics Jonathan Salant, who is covering his 20th convention. “There’s always been plenty of space.” 

Another veteran journalist said the seating decision reflected a choice from Democrats to prioritize social media influencers who are promoting Harris over objective and trained journalists. 

“Basically, what they’re saying is, we think we can reach more people through influencers than we think through the traditional press. That’s the bottom line,” the journalist said. 

After receiving the seating arrangement, a journalist who negotiated credentials for another news outlet put it bluntly, “We got f***ed, but at least we all got f***ed equally,” referring to all newspapers and wire services getting far fewer seats than requested. 

The hard feelings among the press tracks with greater frustration with Harris refusing to hold a press conference since becoming the new Democratic Party nominee, nearly a month after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race on July 21, 2024. 

The Democratic National Convention, however, said credentialing content creators has not affected access or credential allocations for traditional media. There are 15,000 members of the international, domestic, and local press credentialed to cover the convention, compared to 200 content creators. 

Asked by the Washington Examiner whether content creators were taking seats from traditional press, Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic Party, said no. 

“No, we just created more space for them off the floor for the influencers,” Harrison told the Washington Examiner. “Press has all of the same stuff that they’ve had in the past.”

The Standing Committee of Correspondents, which represents the traditional print and wire services, including outlets like the Associated Press, New York Times, and the Washington Post, has been raising concerns about the lack of press access inside the stadium. 

“The Standing Committee of Correspondents urged the DNC to allocate significantly more workspace for print journalists attending this year’s convention in Chicago than they decided to provide,” the Standing Committee of Correspondents said in a statement Monday. “While we appreciate the DNC’s willingness to listen to our requests, including after Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee, we are concerned that the decision to reduce dedicated and accessible workspace by hundreds compared to prior conventions will hinder journalists’ ability to cover the historic nature of this convention.”

In addition to the 47 traditional seats in section 114, the DNC assigned roughly 130 additional stadium seats for the press in the upper tier of the arena in section 321. This seating raised safety and evacuation concerns for journalists with mobility problems because they would have to climb into the space from behind the seat if the row is occupied by writers on their laptops in makeshift desks in the stadium row. There’s additional unassigned press open seating in the arena, but without power or the ability to plug in a laptop, the essential tool for a working journalist.

The press seats at the United Center, while limited, are free. The Republican National Committee charged $150 for a seat in the Fiserv Forum but offered far more seats to the press to see former President Donald Trump, known for bashing the “fake news,” accept the nomination.

The difference in Chicago is that journalists without a seat in the United Center have far higher costs for workspace in the adjacent media filing center. The price for the assigned space in the media filing center is $911 a seat at the Advocate Center, compared to $100 a seat in Milwaukee at the Baird Center just a month earlier at the RNC.

Unlike Milwaukee, Chicago welcomed the press with a big party at Navy Pier featuring live music, free drinks, and local fare such as Chicago-style hot dogs. As the press mingled and enjoyed the free fare, they also worried about the ability to do their jobs this week while jockeying for space.

Convention organizers said fewer desks are available because of space limitations at the United Center.

“Democrats value a free press, and the convention will be a reflection of that,” a Democratic National Convention spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve prioritized making sure members of the media have the resources they need to bring the story of our convention out to their communities from both inside and outside of the convention hall, and we look forward to working with members of the media and content creators alike as we bring the story of our convention, our party, and the Harris-Walz ticket to the American people.”