For the last seven months, Christine Byun has attended every town hall, press conference and fund-raiser held for (former) presidential hopeful Fred Thompson across at least 10 states, trying not to miss a single handshake. But even news junkies may not recognize her face. She’s what’s known as an off-air reporter for ABC News’ Political Unit.
As part of the media’s comprehensive coverage of the 2008 presidential race, networks have employed off-air reporters to serve as their eyes and ears, to cover all aspects of the presidential campaigns of every candidate (well, most of them), 24/7. ABC News tapped Byun, normally a producer working out of ABC News’ Midwest Bureau in Chicago, to cover Thompson. So if Fred went to Iowa, so did she. If Fred went to South Carolina, she followed. If Fred hopped on his campaign bus, she trailed him in a press van pool.
As a reporter for a major network in today’s digital age, Byun covered events, conducted interviews, wrote stories, shot video and filed dozens of stories on the Republican candidate for ABC News, much of which would appear on the network’s Web site. Byun’s parents have since become frequent visitors of that site and quite the political junkies.
The 26-year-old says she could tell it was a good day when the former Tennessee senator, also a film and TV actor, would call her “kiddo” and a bad day when he referred to her as “ma’am.” The day after Thompson announced he was quitting the race, Byun took some time to share her thoughts on this unique experience on the campaign trail with KoreAm Journal.
So, how closely were you expected to follow your guy, Fred Thompson?
[Thompson’s aides] kept him at arm’s length from us [journalists], but I basically slept in the same hotel he slept in. We’d see each other in the morning, at events and press conferences.
I always tell people it took him a really long time before he even said my name. I’ve been following him since June, when he announced he was seriously thinking about getting into the race and he formed an exploratory committee. … But it wasn’t until mid-November when he finally uttered my name. We were in a South Carolina gun store, and he was joking around with me (telling the people around him), “You better watch out for these suspicious characters like this girl, Christine.” It was just an odd moment, because it was like, “He knows my name!”
Didn’t he throw a snowball at you in Iowa?
Actually, he was telling me to duck. You’re in Iowa, walking through all these small towns, there was all this snow, and one of his senior aides threw a snowball at my CBS counterpart. My CBS friend got the aide in the back, and then Thompson joined in.
