This past week, I was privileged enough to work as a “runner” for the Presidential Inauguration of our 45th president, Donald J. Trump, for ABC News. This experience hands down was one of the most informative and interesting times of my life. I worked Wednesday through Friday and each day was its own challenge. But, it really wasn’t what I expected or what I think any of the other runners expected. In case you’re sitting here wondering what a runner is...let me explain.
A runner is essentially an intern but for a much shorter amount of time and for a specific event. At first I was really nervous going into the office for the first day. Runners were assigned different locations; some were in the field, like at the Pentagon or other locations. However, I was stationed at the Washington D.C. bureau. Honestly, I barely slept the night before, partially because I was excited because this is the career field I hope to pursue one day in the future and partially because I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Regardless, I showed up bright and early at 8 am, ready to find out what that day would entail. I’m not sure what I expected it to be like. I think I mostly thought that I would be getting coffee a lot and running to grab stuff of the printer. You know…basic intern duties. While I did have to get coffee once, the majority of the time for the runners at the bureau was spent on camera, which was actually slightly terrifying but also an incredible experience.
The title for my position was called the Correspondent Stand-In/Bureau Runner. For the first day, we mostly sat in the morning and got to know the other interns. One other girl and I were pulled away at one point to go grab a taxi and go to the Capitol security building to get employees passes so they could get through security. Quickly, I realized, that no task is easy or simple, as we were there for an hour before realizing we weren’t going to be able to get all of the passes that day and that we only had about an hour and a half to grab lunch and get on set. That lead to the first real adventure, which was trying to catch a taxi in D.C. and give the driver the correct directions back to the bureau. I grew up in Northern Virginia and I have gone to D.C. numerous times. However, I am awful at directions and I never have ever had to use a taxi. I typically take the metro, drive, or walk. When we got back after lunch around 1 p.m. the exciting part started. We got to go down to the basement and get on set. Right before going downstairs, one of the interns mentioned that they had been doing rehearsals with us so that they could run cue to cue to get ready for the show. George Stephanopoulos is ABC News’ main anchor. All the interns immediately knew they didn’t want the pressure of getting assigned to play him, but lucky for me, that’s exactly who I got.
As a correspondent stand in, we were exactly that: we stood in for the correspondent so they didn’t have to be there while the camera, audio, sound guys all did their thing to get ready for the show. I think the weirdest part was that they actually called us by the names we were given, like George or Robin Roberts, and by the end of the day we were all going by those names. I actually have someone saved in my phone as David Muir and I think if anyone were to say the name George right now I would turn my head and think it was me. That day was pretty easy; we just put in our Interruptible foldback, otherwise known as IFBs, and put on our mics and listened to what we were told to do. That day we worked from roughly 8:30 until 6:30.
The next morning consisted of basically the same. We sat on set, except this day, they made us talk. We were meant to ad-lib the entire day and basically put on a mock news segment. I ran through a fake Good Morning America and then quickly ran away and was lucky enough to go into the control room and help people out by doing more simple tasks, like get them tape or something, as well as actually go and make my first official Starbucks run, which actually made me feel more like an intern than anything else had. I’m much more comfortable sitting behind a computer typing away then coming up with riveting conversation on the spot on camera.
Friday was the craziest day by far, and yet, it really wasn’t that busy for us runners. But, it was definitely one of the longest days. I worked from roughly 4:30 a.m. until 6 or 7 p.m. but all of the runners were assigned different times to come in. I’m still very jealous of the people who got assigned 10 a.m. for their call time. In retrospect though, I wouldn’t have traded. I got to be the runner who brought George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts their prompter copy and got to watch the intensity of the control room during a broadcast. The rest of the day was actually very laid back for us. Since we're called runners and the presidential inauguration is a major event, I think we all assumed we would be running all over the place. But mostly, we sat and talked to each other and got to learn more about the career field we were in and waited to be told what to do. Meanwhile, everyone was focusing on the shows; there were riots and protests that had opened up all over the district, including one that was very close to us only about two blocks away. I had never been that close to a protest, but luckily the majority of them were very peaceful. At one point, another runner and I decided to go down to K and 13th street which is where the rallies were happening and we watched and recorded the events. That was definitely the highlight of my entire experience. That was what news always felt like to me: being right in the scene of everything going down, getting footage and reporting it. I had never been exposed to something like this in this way so naturally, it was slightly terrifying and when someone yelled “BOMB EVERYONE RUN,” I definitely ran. It turned out though, that the bomb was just a cracker and nothing bad was really happening. I didn’t personally see any broken windows or cars on fire, just some chanting from the famous Green Day song “no KKK, no fascist USA, no Trump.” In general people weren’t being disruptive and were just using their First Amendment right from what it seemed.
This experience is definitely very unique. Very few people can say they were a stand in for George Stephanopoulos and while it was overwhelming at times, I definitely loved every minute of it, whether it was the anxiety from having to talk on set or the awkwardness that came about walking up to the stage while the anchors were getting ready just to hand them a piece of paper and run away. One of the best moments was when the other runners were on set and one of the other interns and I got pulled into the third floor to bring cake to the two birthday boys of the day and George Stephanopoulos was having his celebration of 20 years at ABC. Although, it was slightly difficult to enjoy it because I was so afraid I was going to drop the cake.
I think I learned a lot about myself during these three days, such as I will never be the on camera talent and I don’t mind getting Starbucks for everyone. I definitely recommend that if you’re thinking about applying to an internship or you’re not sure about what career field you want to go into to give it a shot and just have fun with it.
