Cub reporter takes the ride of his life
By John Dixon
Covering the primaries

Michelle Obama with cub reporter John Dixon. Obama and Cocky read to the kids at USC's Child Development Research Center in Columbia.

It has been a wild two weeks. This is my second election as a Scholastic Kid's Corps Reporter. The last election was different because there were five reporters to handle the events and a single primary to cover. Now, four years later, I am the only one left in S.C. and there were two hotly contested primaries to follow.

The chase began when the Democrats gathered for a debate on the campus of South Carolina State University campus. My editor, Suzanne Freeman. flew in from New York, and we hit a few Republican events. I got a basic feel for the positions of each candidate and interviewed Richardson and Gravel. We did a live blog from the debate.

I introduced Suzanne to my family at The Columbia Star before she flew home and left me with orders to catch as many interesting events as I could in the coming months.

I interviewed Mitt Romney, John McCain, and John Edwards. I met with Fred Thompson at Hudson's Smokehouse Grill in Lexington. He's a good speaker and quite humorous, too.

John Dixon, cub reporter for The Columbia Star and Scholastic Kids Corp Reporter rides the busway after appearing on The Today Show.

When Republican Primary week finally rolled around, Suzanne flew in on Wednesday, and we chased for candidates and interviews.

Wednesday evening we caught up with Mitt Romney at the Russell House. Thursday at noon we were in a crowded tent at the McCain Headquarters in the cold dripping rain. That evening we were in Aiken to meet Ron Paul and Craig Romney. Friday morning we met with Fred Thompson at the historic Beacon Drive- in in Spartanburg and were back at the Russell House that evening to catch up with Mike Huckabee.

On top of all the craziness of the primary, I learned I would be going toNew York City to be on the Today Show to talk about my work as a reporter for Scholastic, but we still had several full days ahead before the trip.

 

On Saturday, we visited four polling places to talk about voter turn out and preferences. We started at Olympia and moved on to Old Woodlands. I sat in the C-Span interview chair and talked to the bus driver at the Polo Road precinct and then met with Trey Paul at Bradley School for a few pointers.

Next, we dashed off to the Huckabee party and finally to WIS to watch their live feed and file our story on the McCain victory.

It was late when we got home, but we were not done yet. Sunday morning I was up early standing in a wicked icy wind on the grounds of the State House to do an MSNBC interview wearing just my suede jacket and trying not to let my teeth chatter during filming.

We went to an Obama Rally late Sunday night at the Metropolitan Convention Center. Security was high, and I did not get near enough to ask any questions, but the speech was powerful and worth the time.

Being a guest on The Today Show

 

 

 

Early the next morning, Scholastic flew my mother and me up to New York City to do the Today Show along with another Scholastic Kids reporter and her mother from New Hampshire so we could get prepped and settled before the show.

We flew into LaGuardia which is the biggest airport I have ever seen. Scholastic sent a car for us and after checking into the Club Quarters at Rockefeller Center, we walked Midtown and Rockefeller Plaza. We finally found a quaint little Italian restaurant called Nino's where we split an excellent pizza.

After resting up and thawing out, we headed in search of Nintendo World, coming to the store as they celebrated the release of the game Endless Ocean.

I bought a game and a T- shirt before returning to the hotel to meet Elizabeth Conway, the Kid Reporter from Manchester New Hampshire for a face-to-face mock interview with Sarah Trabucchi and Kyle Goode of Scholastic.

It was neat because this was the first time I met the other kid reporterwho was going to be on the Today Show. After the interview my companion chose to go ice skating in Central Park. Not being into public humiliation, I took a nap instead.

 

In the morning, we walked overto the NBC studios for the Today Show.

 

 

 

 

After a quick rest in the green room, Elizabeth and I were taken to hair and make up. That done, we returned to the green room, rushed out with lapel microphones, and were ushered outside onto the square to be on camera.

While we waited, I caught sight of Stephen King. He was hustling down the stairs so I didn't get to meet him or even get a decent picture of him.

We met Matt, Al, Ann, and Meredith as we were ushered outside together. Aside from my teeth chattering the whole time, the filming was rather enjoyable. It was quick and not nearly as detailed as we had been prepared for.

Touring NBC

After we spent a little more time in the green room we headed off on a personal guided tour of the NBC Studios to explore and have our pictures taken on the sets of Saturday Night Live, Live with Conan, and News 4.

 

 

 

 

 

We also stopped by the NBC Nightly News set and peaked in on the MSNBC newsroom which was all abuzz with activity. While on the News 4 set, we met Chris Cimino and had our picture taken in Reel Talk chairs.

I couldn't resist trying out that Reel Talk chair because my Movie Review column in The Columbia Star is called Reel Talk.

 

 

After Elizabeth tried her hand at being a weather girl, we headed onto the subway bound for Scholastic's Corporate offices in Soho.

Riding the subway

On that ride, I learned that I had met a professional author after all because Sarah Trabucchi has a book accepted for publication and it is due out in March of 2009. It is a teen romance called The Season and part of a trilogy. She promised me an interview when it comes out.

Visiting the Scholastic buidling

Almost as soon as we stepped out of the subway we saw the Scholastic building. The entire building was decorated with Scholastic book characters and the mission statement of Scholastic.

After visiting with my editor, Suzanne Freeman, I met another member of the staff, Jennifer Boggs and Rebecca Bondor, the executive editor of the Scholastic Magazines and Richard Morris, owner and CEO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hailed a cab back to the Club Quarters. It was wild watching as the cab wound its way through the concrete canyons formed by the buildings of the city. Traffic was unreal, but our driver was skilled, and we arrived safely at our destination.

The rest of our time was spent eating lunch, getting packed, and grabbing our boarding passes and piling into a hired car to drive to the Newark airport.

Leaving New York

On our way to the airport, it began to snow, which caused our flight to be delayed several hours. The rest of the flight went without a hitch, and the journey was over by 9 pm or so.

 

 

 

I can truly say I have been to New York now. I rode the subway, hailed a cab, walked Times Square, Greenwich Village, Midtown and Soho, did the Today Show and got yelled at by a man on a bike playing chicken with our cab as we sped back to the hotel.

My only regret is that Broadway is dark on Monday night and I did not get to see Spamalot while we were there.

Covering the Democratic Primary

We got back in time to dive into the Democratic primary whirlpool with both feet! The highlights of my Democratic Primary week were meeting Michelle Obama at the Child Development Research Center as she read to preschoolers and talked with their parents, finally hearing Hilary Clinton speak at the Democratic Stump Meeting at the Jamil Temple, and being present for Obama's landmark victory speech at the Metropolitan Convention Center Saturday night.

Thanking Scholastic

Thank you Scholastic! It's been a great four- year run, and I look forward to this year's Convention and election activities before passing the mantle of S.C. coverage to a new Kid Corps reporter because I'll be old enough to vote in the 2012 election.