Ms. Thomas has attended every national political convention since 1948, when she was a gofer. Did she still consider the conventions major news events?

"Not major," Ms. Thomas said. "They've taken the major out of it." But–"it's important. I don't blame anybody for wanting to be here. It is an historic event. And you want the human contact." Moments later, Carl Bernstein, half of the Washington Post 's Watergate investigative duo and now the executive editor of Voter.com, emerged from the Washington Post encampment.

"My God!" said Ms. Thomas, "I haven't seen you."

Mr. Bernstein shook her hand.

"Dot-com, huh," said Ms. Thomas.

Mr. Bernstein, with a fresh young Voter.com employee, introduced Ms. Thomas. "Helen Thomas–a great woman," he said.

"It's pretty controlled," Ms. Thomas said of the convention.

"Iron fist. Bush himself used the phrase. 'Iron-fisted,'" said Mr. Bernstein.

" Sears ?" Ms. Thomas asked, referring to Leonard Garment's new book, In Search of Deep Throat , which concludes that Bob Woodward and Mr. Bernstein's Watergate source was John Sears, a political adviser to Nixon and two-time campaign manager to Ronald Reagan. Mr. Bernstein snorted. "We said it's not Sears," he said, "because it doesn't fit the definition of 'in the executive branch.' Sears has said he was Bernstein's source and he was. But he wasn't Deep Throat."

"I heard from Brokaw that Sears is going to sue Garment," said Ms. Thomas. Sometimes, history is the first rough draft of journalism.

Adrienne Rhodes, former spokesperson for the New York Daily News , formally declared her candidacy as a Republican candidate for New York's 14th Congressional district July 30, on a terrace of the Liberty Bell Pavilion in Philadelphia, Pa.

Off the Record can bring you this news exclusively because we showed up. Therefore, we got an exclusive. Ms. Rhodes' press release reported that she would have a "symbolic ceremony with family matriarchs and supporters" to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Representative Carolyn Maloney. Though the press release announcing Ms. Rhodes' event claimed that the candidate "has succeeded in attracting meaningful assistance" (and a campaign worker), the other attendees of the campaign-kickoff event were several members of Ms. Rhodes' family, her campaign adviser Alan Zakin and co-treasurer Peter Hort.

There was no reporter from the New York Daily News .

Ms. Rhodes sat down on a park bench for a one-on-one chat with Off the Record. It was a lot easier than getting Hillary.

"I think we are going to win," she said, noting that her experience as a spokeswoman for the Daily News, as well as with the United Negro College Fund, qualified her for Congress.

"I've been in the communications–I call it the problem-solving–business for 20 years," Ms. Rhodes said. Now, she said, she was "looking for a new challenge."

Who is behind her run?

"A lot of my support is being provided anonymously by high-profile people who are fearful of a backlash from supporting a first-time challenger," she said.

Does that include Daily News colleagues?

"Not current colleagues," she said. "No, it's not Debby Krenek and Art Browne, but I will be hitting them up soon for donations."

And what about the Daily News ' owner, Mortimer B. Zuckerman?

"We talked about it," she said, but "Mort does not support political candidates." A call to Mr. Zuckerman's office generated this response from a spokesperson: "Mr. Zuckerman doesn't discuss his personal political involvements." As for a possible endorsement from her current employer–Ms. Rhodes is still a consultant to the Daily News –the spokesman said, "It's way too early to discuss political endorsements."

At the time of Ms. Rhodes' event, two competing gun protests, pro and con, were taking place on the Liberty Bell Pavilion, one with shoes symbolizing the children killed with guns and one with flags symbolizing the lives saved by Americans carrying weapons. Representative Maloney is a nationally known proponent of stronger gun-control laws. Where did Ms. Rhodes stand? "I wonder why it took a million moms to address this matter rather than a representative who allegedly cares about this matter," Ms. Rhodes said. "I believe in the Second Amendment, but I strongly support Governor Pataki's position on responsible gun ownership."

Contacted, Representative Maloney said, "It's a democratic process and I look forward to it."

Eavesdrop on a conversation at random in the media headquarters at the Republican Convention and it's worth betting a drink at the hotel bar that the topic will be whether there's any point in those particular journalists being there. In short, there is an existential crisis among journalists.

And even when nothing happens, we say man is this boring, and I think, why are we here. Some, in Beckett fashion, have simply resigned themselves to it.

"There's always been a lot of press," said Lars-Erik Nelson, a political columnist for the New York Daily News . "And for no reason."

Under the four tents, dubbed Media Pavilions by the R.N.C., a goodly portion of the staff of daily newspapers and magazines has set up shop in spaces walled off by blue curtains. You can peek inside most and see … what pretty much looks like a newsroom as 10, 50, 60 or more people tap away at computers.

With all the moaning and groaning about how there's no news to cover, these people sure seem busy. At what, it's not clear.

"You look at the Gannett place," Mr. Nelson said on July 31. "It's like looking at a bank, you know, fifteen hundred people and they're all typing stories and they can't all have different stories."

In fact, the reporters in the Gannett work space working for USA Today , managed to fill five pages of the Aug. 1 paper, filing 17 stories plus columns of various news tidbits. But with separate news stories headlined "Laura Bush Urges 'Respect'" and "Laura Bush Ties Her Speech to Kids," it can be a little tough to see why they need journalists and not just P.R. guys.

Of the general convention coverage, Mr. Nelson said, "It's bullshit. I always tell them if you want to spend money on the campaign, spend it on the trail, spend it early, get to know people better, and it's always yeah yeah yeah, twenty guys show up to cover the convention."

But Michael Oreskes, the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times , doesn't agree. If journalists aren't finding news, they simply aren't looking hard enough. "It depends on your definition of news," Mr. Oreskes said. "It's completely true that conventions no longer do what they used to do, which is pick a party's nominee for President."

The three themes driving the Times coverage, Mr. Oreskes said, are Money, Message and Politics. "I think most journalists are way too cynical about what politicians say," he said. "They have a message and there is nothing wrong as a journalist that one of my roles is to carry that message through to the public.

"If you mean selecting a candidate for President, there is no news," he said. "If you mean raising tens of thousands of dollars, there is news. There's every reason to be here."

Waiting for Bushie.

Off the Record can be reached by e-mail at gsnyder@ob server.com

Time Warner aired the debate exclusively on CNN and various Time Warner journalists ( Time managing editor Walter Isaacson, CNN guy Jeff Greenfield) hogged all the camera time during the post-debate show. In fact, non-Time Warner journalists were not allowed in the hall, which seats more than 1,450.

A press release that went out before the big night advised reporters: "Members of the working press will not have access to the auditorium where the debate is taking place." Nonetheless, Time reporter Eric Pooley was inside, wearing his press badge around his neck.

Matt Cooper, deputy Washington bureau chief at Time and the magazine's organizer for the debate, said there simply was not enough room. "If you want to go up to Harlem and say to a church group that you can't sit here because we need the seats for press, go ahead," said Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Isaacson, who said he saw journalists from other news organizations in the crowd, but not necessarily reporting, said, "It was not a conscious policy of 'Let's exclude the working press.' … I snuck my wife in without a ticket, which I guess gives you an indication of what the situation was like that night."

James Dao of The New York Times did manage to get in and file a colorful story on the raucous scene. Adam Nagourney, the political reporter who wrote the main Times story, said his colleague worked his way in without a press pass. "Frankly, if Jim hadn't gotten in, I would have been annoyed, to put it mildly," Mr. Nagourney said. (Mr. Dao did not return a call for comment.)

Pressed on the point of not inviting non-Time Warner reporters into the Apollo, Mr. Cooper relented: "Fine. Next time, maybe there should be a pool."

Most reporters on duty worked out of the United House of Prayer for All People across the street, where there were phone lines, TV monitors, soda and sandwiches. Gerald Levin, chief executive of Time Warner, watched the debate from an Apollo seat, then crossed West 125th Street for a visit to the trenches afterward. The room–it was the church cafeteria–was a frenzy of post-debate spin and furious typing. Whoopi Goldberg, Spike Lee, Al Sharpton, David Dinkins, Harvard professor Cornel West, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and local politicians were giving quotes to any journalist willing to listen.

Mr. Levin, dressed in his post-America Online-merger-announcement uniform of slacks, tweed jacket and no tie, looked pleased. Sure, hosting the debate had cost his companies a small fortune–to equip the media center, he had to dig up the street outside to install enough phone lines; he also had to buy a satellite dish to get the debate broadcast, because the United House of Prayer isn't wired for cable–but this little exercise in synergy seemed to be going smashingly. Even the questions to the candidates culled from e-mails were from users of Internet services Time Warner either owns or will be merged with soon enough.

Mr. Levin settled in to watch Ms. Goldberg telling why she supports Mr. Gore at a podium set up in front of a backdrop of CNN and Time magazine logos. When Ms. Goldberg finished, one of the publicists pulled her aside and asked, "Would you like to meet Mr. Levin?"

The actress made her way over to the media executive, and the two made some small talk before Ms. Goldberg got to business–a discussion of the Apollo itself. "Has anyone made the quintessential documentary?"

"We've done a short documentary," Mr. Levin said.

"I'd like to be the narrator," Ms. Goldberg said. "I'm very good at it."

Mr. Levin nodded encouragingly, but didn't make any commitments before Mr. West, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School known for his Marxist views, walked up to Mr. Levin and gave him a big bear hug. Mr. West asked if he had heard any of his speech in favor of Mr. Bradley a few minutes earlier.

Mr. Levin hadn't arrived yet, but said, "If I knew you were going to speak, I would have been here."

Then it was Mr. Sharpton, who had been pushing for a Democratic debate in Harlem for weeks and had, one might surmise, gotten the privilege of asking the first question of the debate. Mr. Sharpton thrust out his hand, which Mr. Levin shook, and said, "Thank you, Reverend."

The Nasdaq television screen that graces the nine-story cylinder attached to the 4 Times Square Condé Nast building may be a hit with tourists, but those who work inside it don't like it.

Affectionately referred to as "the can," the Nasdaq sign, a television screen that curves around the cylinder, is five feet away from the building wall. The window cutouts are tunnels that don't provide much light and don't make for good views.

There's also the fear that sitting every day a few feet away from a giant TV screen may not be good for your health.

One Gourmet staff member who moved to another office said, "We were lucky to get out because if we are ever going to reproduce, we'd like to not have aliens."

Gary Nalven, president of Saco Smartvision Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian company that built the sign, said Condé Nast workers have nothing to fear from the more than 18 million light-emitting diodes that make up the screen.

"I know of no health warnings connected to this low-current device," Mr. Nalven said. "This is the most benign type of equipment."

Mr. Nalven did admit, though, that he knows of no other sign of that size that people sit that close to for so long. (They're usually found in stadiums and malls.) The magazines that get to sit in the can include Self , Bride's , GQ , House & Garden and Vanity Fair .

Adrienne Rhodes, a tough-talking public relations representative for the Daily News since 1993, is trying to get off the flack track. On Feb. 8, she sent a memo to her "colleagues and friends" at the tabloid, announcing that she would become a consultant for the paper. Her reason: She wants to "explore other career opportunities, including a possible run for a Congressional seat."

Daily News press releases have lately come from Emma Clurman, the paper's senior vice president of corporate communications.

Ms. Rhodes told Off the Record that she is working with the Republican Party in Manhattan on her potential campaign.

"I have been in discussions with the leadership of the Republican Party that were very encouraging … We're going to take small steps towards launching a campaign."

Ms. Rhodes was not known for her political finesse as the News ' authorized contact with the outside world.

"She doesn't fit the definition of a glad-handing, be-nice-to-people kind of politician," said one News staff member.

Describing some of her qualifications, Ms. Rhodes said she had been honored by Gov. George Pataki and was appointed to the Bush Administration's U.S. Commission on Minority Business Development.

In her swan song as the News in-house flack, Ms. Rhodes also claimed, "On the media relations front, we have been consistently successful in generating more coverage of Daily News content on TV broadcasts than any other local newspaper on a weekly basis." She added, "We have also been effective in communicating controlled messages during numerous crises … most recently, Scratch-n-Match."

In that incident, the Daily News mistakenly printed the wrong numbers in its lottery-style sweepstakes game. Readers who thought they had won as much as $100,000 ended up disappointed and angry. The fiasco led to the controlled-message headline on the front page of The New York Times : " Daily News Error: $100,000 Dreams Turn to Nightmare."