Another shoe dropping: Erik Prince advised Trump transition team on intel, then met w/ Putin aide

[calimary]

20. Well, they go for the low-hanging fruit. The front entrance where some of the VIPs come and go

and are seen. The REAL "goods" are often smuggled in and out through the back door.

I tried that once and scooped all the rest of the news media - local, national, and international. VERY minor, but it was still a scoop. When I was at the AP, there were many events and happenings to cover regarding Elizabeth Taylor. There were several times when she was hospitalized, a couple of them serious. One of these was at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. Word spread that she was finally going to be released that day, after a pretty rough and lengthy stay. A news conference setting was arranged out in front of the main entrance to the hospital - podium, mics, cameras, the works. By the time I got there, reporters were already assembling. I was the radio reporter but this was one of many situations when the print-side didn't have a reporter available (busy covering other news, or short-staffed, or some such), and they'd send me to cover it for print, too, and then use my quotes and so forth.

Everybody was ready. What the AP and others usually did was prepare a write-thru and leave the opening sentence blank. That way, the background of the story was already written, researched, edited, and in place. The new lead would be popped in as soon as it happened, and BOOM, the story goes out all over everywhere (in the AP's case, on the wires into every subscribing news outlet in the world). Obits are all done that way. You prepare the background with all the research and the life-story and get it all set up in advance so that when the celebrity or VIP actually passes, you just update the top, fast-fast-fast, and it's done. Our story had been written and was all ready for the new topper - she was finally released from the hospital, expected to return home to continue her recovery, blah-blah-blah. In this case I think it was a bad flu that deteriorated into multiple infections that just complicated everything, especially in her condition with longtime recurring health problems and also, by then, her age. There had been one point in this case wherein it was speculated she was so ill that she might not make it.

So, not sure why I did it, but for some reason I felt like wandering over around the corner and down the block - to where the hospital's loading dock was. And sure enough, guess what I saw? A slick black town car with serious-looking guys in black suits. The car doors were closing. The car headed up the driveway and out, passing directly in front of me, and I could just barely make her out in the back seat. She waved at me. I immediately called the bureau where they were expecting to hear from me, and said "she's out!" BOOM! The supervisor quickly types in the new lead at the top of the story and out it goes. Scooped EVERYBODY. The reporters at the front entrance were all still waiting for the official announcement from the hospital. I had actually eyeballed her departure. Just a lucky guess, but that's how it happened!

Then I walked back up to the hospital entrance and set up to cover the news conference that would soon follow. It was kinda neat to see some of the reporters on their cell phones, getting the notice from their newsrooms that AP had just said she's been released, and to ask this or that. (Teeheehee - that was me! AAAAAAAhhh!!!)

But the REALLY coolest thing was when I got back to the bureau and saw the long print-side write-thru that had gone out on the wire, breaking the news. They'd given me the byline.

That was an AMAZING day.