Press: Scrounging for Good Air

How a floor reporter works a cut-and-dried convention

NBC's Chris Wallace was getting edgy. He was supposed to interview Ron Reagan, the President's son, on the Republican Convention floor under the signpost of the New York delegation. But his interviewee, it turned out, was many yards away, under the standard of New York's alternates. Wallace ran to the Reagan seats in the VIP box, then circled the floor. By the time the misunderstanding was discovered, the "window" of open air time had passed.

For Wallace, the missed interview made three nights in a row of minor irritations. On the convention's first evening, he...