Presidential candidate, Wesley Clark, shares a laugh with some young journalists—before they ask him some tough questions.

It’s an ambitious plan—but one that the determined young reporters and editors from Children’s PressLine are confident they can carry out.

The idea is for Children’s PressLine reporters (aged 8 to 13) to interview all nine Democratic candidates for President, face to face and on camera, about their views on a key list of children’s issues.

Then they’ll work with their editors (aged 14 to 18) to produce segments on each candidate that will air on a public television show called “Kids News” that reaches 90 million households via approximately 171 stations.

Once every last candidate has answered all of their questions, the kids will create a report card, to be posted on the Children’s PressLine Web site, grading the candidates on issues important to kids to help adults make an informed choice while in the voting booth.

“I’m not hopeful we will get the interviews,” says Tiffany Eng, 16, a Children’s PressLine editor. “I know we will.”

A non-profit youth advocacy journalism program based in New York City, Children’s PressLine aims to give youth between the ages of eight and 18 a voice and the power to use it.

Nily Rozic, 17, is the lead editor of this year’s editorial team. She joined Children’s PressLine in just the past year and she's quickly become a strong mentor to her peers. “I’m in charge of making sure that everything goes as smoothly as possibly—talking to my reporters and making sure that they’re comfortable and that they are prepared,” she says. “My relationship with my reporters is basically like I’m their older sister. I see part of myself in the reporters and I think it’s so great to have a friendship and a bond with them.”

Kids and Politics
Planning for Children’s PressLine’s coverage of the 2004 election started in July 2003. Rozic and her team decided they wanted to do something big enough to have a national impact, and to give kids’ issues a higher profile in the national political arena.

“The first thing we had to do when thinking about covering the 2004 Presidential election process was to research the issues,” explains Eric Halperin, 17, an editor at Children’s PressLine as well as at his school newspaper. “We all had meetings and decided what were the most important topics to focus on because not a lot of people are really talking about youth issues.”

After their brainstorming sessions, the editors and reporters decided to focus heavily on a few key issues. Their list includes the No Child Left Behind education reform law, homeless families, and kids without health insurance—all areas that they think anyone who wants to be President should have a firm opinion about.

From the beginning, they had planned on contacting each campaign’s press secretaries to schedule sit-down, taped interviews. But when they found out that the September 25, 2003 debate was to be held in New York, they couldn’t resist covering the event—live.

Natasha Kirtchuk interviews candidate Dennis Kucinich

The team of four editors and reporters that covered the debate agree on one highlight: Having edged their way through masses of adult reporters, Rozic and her 12-year-old colleague Natasha Kirtchuk began interviewing candidate Dennis Kucinich. “You know, there’s this girl at Children’s PressLine, her name is Natasha Kirtchuk, I really appreciate her work,” Kucinich told the girls.

“I said to him, you know, you’re talking to Natasha Kirtchuk, and I showed him her pass,” remembers Rozic. “And he was so surprised—he had actually heard of her work, her interviews. We were all pretty shocked. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.” (See Kirtchuk’s thoughts on the revision of rules regarding media ownership.)

When Kirtchuk asked candidate Wesley Clark for his views on lowering the national voting age, she got this response: “I think we sure ought to look at it. I think the other thing is when I see kids like you and you’re out here talking about politics and citizenship and making our country better, it sure gives me a lot of hope for the future.”

The 5’3” Eng learned the hard way what reporters go through to get close to the candidates at a crowded event. “After the debate, I was hit in the head with a camera,” she laughs. “You have to step on people’s feet to get them out of the way because everyone was flocking around the candidates.”

The team had a clear strategy at the event: answers to their policy questions aside, they made sure to get as many of the candidates as possible on the record—and on camera—promising to give them sit-down interviews at a later date. “That’s important because we can call them up and say, remember us from the debate, you promised us a sit-down interview, so let’s work on that,” says Rozic.

Adults Step Aside
Adult supervisors at Children’s PressLine never thought twice about the kids’ ability to accomplish their goals for covering this political season. “Kids are tough and don’t let politicians easily off the hook,” says Katina Paron, the program's director. She often remembers another young reporter named Suki Cheuong, who interviewed then-Vice President Dan Quayle on Air Force 2 in 1991. “They were talking about abortion and rape,” recalls Paron. “The girl kept asking, ‘So, even if I was raped, you think I should have the baby?’ I really think this instance impacted at least a few voters.”

Adults like Paron play a limited role by setting up the sessions where the students initially meet with each other and providing some guidance when asked. But the teenage editors play a much larger role in monitoring the process for the 8- to 13-year-old reporters who actually conduct interviews and ask questions.

Asked if he would like to be the one asking the questions to the candidates, rather than the younger kids, Halperin responds, “The most important thing is that they are the youth. I mean, I’m much closer to being an adult than a child—legally I’ll be voting in the next election.”

“The younger kids out there in the world don’t have people talking for them,” says Rozic. “When you look at the debates or just any interview with the candidates, mostly they talk about Iraq or foreign policy—they don’t concentrate on children’s issues. I think one of the most important things that the reporters do is advocate for their own youth—their friends.”

Kids on the Radar
According to an October 2001 report by Children Now, a research and action organization, stories focusing on children account for only 10 percent of all local news stories even though people under age 18 make up approximately one-quarter of the overall U.S. population. In February, 2002, the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families reported that crime, violence and abuse make up the bulk of media stories on children’s issues. ("Covering Kids," May 3, 2002, Connect for Kids)

“Something’s wrong with that picture,” says Paron. “Our process is set up to really let kids shine because they often are most ignored in the political landscape. I mean, they even have to raise their hands to go to the bathroom.”

With the excitement of the debate coverage fresh in their minds, the kids aren’t thinking about raising their hands before they ask their next questions. They say their next step towards landing the actual interviews is to keep working with the press staff of all the candidates still in the race.

“A lot of the press secretaries, towards the beginning they didn’t take us seriously, but in the end, as you start to get to know them—I know the people at Howard Dean’s office now and they are extremely nice to me,” reports Rozic. “I called them one time, for example, and I asked for one of the press secretaries and they said, ‘Oh he’s at a meeting.’ So I left my name and they were like, ‘Oh, you’re Nily, he’s not at a meeting, you can talk to him.’”

In addition to their efforts to land and air the candidate interviews, the editors and reporters of Children’s PressLine are excited about another possible opportunity to raise the profile of children’s issues in the coming election: After learning of their recent debate coverage, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe has challenged the team to host another debate for the candidates—one entirely focused on education and kids.

“We’re thinking that we’re definitely going to try to put that together and come up with sponsors and a forum to do that,” says Rozic. “I always love advocating for things—I’m definitely an advocate for life.”

Children’s PressLine has agreed to let Connect for Kids check in regularly with their student reporters and editors throughout the 2004 election season to see what political news they have uncovered. Look for update features at www.connectforkids.org and www.kidsandpolitics.org in the coming months.

Resources:

• The Children’s PressLine Web site
• Weekly Reader magazine has more information on when the “Kids News” TV show airs
• Children Now’s study: “The Local Television News Media's Picture of Children”

Rob Capriccioso is a staff writer for Connect for Kids.