The call is coming from inside the House: this week on Fresh Powder

The call is coming from inside the House.

“Take your snacks … We might be there a long time,” in one way, is something a mom tells her 7-year-old before they get into the car and leave for one of the many vast museums in Washington D.C.; last Wednesday, it was the recollection of one journalist of what security staffers were telling media members as a mob descended on (and into) the U.S. Capitol. According to reporter Burgess Everett, as told to Politico: “We started to see videos on Twitter of protesters outside the building, kind of overrunning the police, or trying to. And, you know, that was a little unsettling. So, I got up, and I walked around [the third floor]. I kind of looked out the windows to see what was happening, and I was noticing that there were a lot of people. There’s a very strict fence that surrounds the perimeter of where you can go and where you can’t go. And I noticed that all of a sudden there were hundreds of people just milling around in places they shouldn’t be.” That was just the beginning.

(Editor’s Note: The news reports and analyses of what happened on Capitol Hill last Wednesday are varied and weighted in many different ways, a hallmark of a free press. It is your choice what to read. We will not directly link to any such reports; rather, we are only choosing to review what happened from the standpoint of journalism.)

. . . Was Vice President Mike Pence taking a bathroom break? Did food service workers seriously still produce lunch amid the chaos? Here’s The Washington Post reporter Paul Kane’s first-hand account from being inside the U.S. Capitol: “I bolted out of the press gallery hoping to find out whether Pence just needed a bathroom break from the tedious proceedings. I bounded down the stairs to the second floor, where senators enter and exit the Chamber. Then I heard it: Police clashing with rioters yet another floor below. I could hear a loud thwacking sound — possibly a billy club being wielded against the invaders.”

. . . Photographers — so often the journalists most in harm’s way in these types of events — did great work in extraordinary circumstances. Here’s APThe Washington Post and Getty.

In other journalism

–  Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are already divorced … nearing divorce … in counseling … just separated? The truth is, nobody knows the truth. Yet. “An avalanche of competing information ensued and became a perfect encapsulation of what happens when a big Hollywood story breaks: Every other tabloid scrambles to post stories with their own takes and their own anonymous sources, and it quickly becomes very confusing.” How to decode the tabloid coverage of Kim and Kanye’s rumored divorce (The Washington Post)

–  Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is on the cover of Vogue this month. Let’s argue about optics. The Washington Post’s critic, Robin Givhan: “The cover did not give Kamala D. Harris due respect. It was overly familiar. It was a cover image that, in effect, called Harris by her first name without invitation.”

–  The COVID-19 vaccine will be the story of 2021, one way or another. How will you cover it? Poynter: 5 story ideas any student publication can take and make their own.

–  Planning a dream vacation, rather than going on one. Cars as valued hangout spots. Celebrating the small things. Longer, more ritualistic baths. These are just a few of the things Pinterest predicts to be trendy in 2021. “A window into the future from the platform where people go to plan it.” (Brought to you by Pinterest itself.)