Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Texas set on Bush, Putin visit
By Nora Frost
The Lariat

WACO (U-WIRE) — Baylor University’s McLane Student Life Center gymnasium is going international — for this week, at least.

Folding tables, cushy chairs, telephones, televisions and a stage have temporarily replaced the four basketball courts in order to host about 300 journalists.

About 120 European and Asian, and 50 Russian journalists will be stationed in the SLC gymnasium, which will be turned into a makeshift newsroom for international journalists and U.S. regional journalists who are covering the Crawford summit with President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin until Thursday.

Other regional press without White House credentials also will be housed in the SLC.

Plans for the international press to use Baylor facilities became concrete a little more than two weeks ago.

The Friday of homecoming, representatives of the White House, U.S. State Department and Russian Foreign Ministry visited the SLC to check out its facilities.

“It met all the things we were looking for, and Baylor has been terrific in offering support and service,” said Jefferson Brown, U.S. State Department Director of Washington Foreign Press Center.

Although the Waco Convention Center was considered as a possible location to house the journalists there were some schedule limitations.

Every folding table has Internet capability. Also, there is the capability for 500 phone lines, and 150 lines have been set up. The Associated Press alone has ordered 10 phone lines, Brown said.

To provide for all of the extra electricity the journalists will consume, an extra transformer has been set up at the SLC.

A podium at the head of the gym has been set up for press briefings.

Most of the televised press briefings will be done in the Crawford newsroom. Russian diplomats and other White House officials also may arrive to brief the press.

“You always set up the podium, but you never know who’s going to talk,” Brown said.

During the Camp David Middle Eastern peace talks, Brown said then-President Bill Clinton came to the podium of the filing center to announce the end of the peace talks.

Not all of the journalists in town will be using the SLC workstation. The White House press corps is working out of the Crawford Community Center. Also, CBS has acquired a ranch that they work out of when President Bush is in Crawford.

Baylor’s KWBU was contacted by the State Department and asked to provide an Electronic News Gathering truck and two production crews, Joani Livingston, KWBU production supervisor, said.

With the only satellite truck between Austin and Dallas, the KWBU crews will videotape and send Crawford footage via satellite internationally.

Since there is limited space at the ranch, not every network can have their photographer videotape events. Because of this, Livingston said CBS will be at the ranch pooling footage for FOX, NBC, ABC and CBS. KWBU will gather and send footage everywhere else.

“It’s an honor because not everyone gets the opportunity to work with the international press,” Kristi Presley, KWBU producer, said.

Although the KWBU crew has been told that they would not have a fixed schedule, the crews have been told that they will work on a live shot for a Moscow television station and one for al-Jazeera, the “CNN of the Middle East,” Livingston said.

Only one student will be working on-location with the KWBU crew, but there will be student production assistants at the SLC.

Some Russian students studying around Texas will serve as volunteers during the press’ stay.