The Boys on Le Bus: Foreign Press Mines Local Angles in US Primary

Covering the endless US presidential primary is a particular challenge for the 1,200 foreign journalists swarming the trail this year. They rarely win attention, let alone interviews, from the candidates. Moreover, their readers overseas often view the contest as if through the opposite end of a telescope: a race toward a barely perceptible goal featuring inscrutable issues and a shifting cast of characters. That is why, even though they work alongside their U.S. counterparts, foreign reporters seem to inhabit a parallel universe, mining the contest and the candidates' biographies for anything remotely resonant to various domestic audiences.