{"id":276,"date":"2026-06-11T11:39:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=276"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:39:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:39:47","slug":"orthographic-glitterati-press-beat-politicians-at-annual-spelling-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=276","title":{"rendered":"Orthographic glitterati? Press beat politicians at annual spelling bee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>On a muggy Wednesday evening, a raucous crowd gathered to cheer on politicos as they competed in what has become a beloved Washington tradition.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=274\">A data center caused an uproar in Utah. Congress is watching (and waiting)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the Congressional Baseball Game, which was being held across town the same night. But the rivalry was no less fierce at the National Press Club\u2019s Press and Politicians Spelling Bee, as words like \u201cglitterati\u201d and \u201cflorilegium\u201d stumped contestants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Federal News Network reporter Rachel S. Cohen won the trophy for the press team after eight grueling rounds. The winning word: \u201camblyopia,\u201d a condition that leads to weakened vision in one eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t Cohen\u2019s first time winning a bee: The defense reporter was a spelling bee champion in her childhood, making it as far as the national championships before aging out of the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have resisted doing this for a long time because I was like, I don\u2019t want to go back to being known as a spelling bee kid,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cBut it\u2019s fun to \u2026 puzzle over things in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Completing the press team were Associated Press editor Katie Vogel, deputy team lead Alex Clearfield from Bloomberg Law, CNBC editor Angela Greiling Keane and senior BBC producer Kelly Chase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They took an early lead over the politicians, who included spelling bee regulars Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., and Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. Joining them this year were Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sean Casten of Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr., D-Va., the winner of last year\u2019s contest, was feeling ill and couldn\u2019t make it, organizers said. Taking his place was Shannon Kennedy, who said she\u2019s not involved in journalism or politics but is married to Casten\u2019s communications director.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy said the call went out for volunteers and it was only minutes before the competition started that she realized she would be Beyer\u2019s stand-in. \u201cI thought I was volunteering for, like, a guest appearance round,\u201d Kennedy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=272\">Top GOP appropriators dominate earmarks in House bills<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She began with low expectations. \u201cI walked in and said, I\u2019m ready to embarrass myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But Kennedy became the last woman standing for the politicians\u2019 team after Casten \u2014 who soldiered on through spelling \u201cprimaveral\u201d and \u201cmurarium\u201d \u2014 was eliminated over the word \u201cankylosaur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other choice words of the evening included \u201cdaguerreotype,\u201d a kind of early photograph, which eliminated Scholten. Kaptur was taken out by \u201cdiptych,\u201d an artwork made of two images side-by-side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy was finally stumped by the word \u201cduomo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The audience was no less engaged than one at, say, a baseball game. Several in the audience brought signs to cheer on Scholten, and one brought a sign depicting Clearfield\u2019s head.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hosts Brian Sietsema, Scripps head associate pronouncer, and 2026 National Spelling Bee champion Shrey Parikh appeared to be relishing their roles. Sietsema in particular seemed to enjoy injecting humor into the affair. Asked to use \u201cbastarda\u201d in a sentence, he said, \u201cNothing says I take medieval typography way too seriously quite like starting a bar fight over whether a document used standard Carolingian minuscule or a particularly insouciant bastarda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Proceeds from the annual event go to the nonprofit National Press Club Journalism Institute, supporting scholarships, training and press freedom efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Casten stumbled on a technicality when it came time to spell \u201cathleisure\u201d \u2014 he had not been aware of a rule against starting over once you\u2019ve begun spelling. \u201cParliamentary inquiry?\u201d he asked to laughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have not decided whether to concede, \u2019cause I think I got robbed,\u201d Casten joked after the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=270\">Trump continues to hold sway in Republican primaries<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a muggy Wednesday evening, a raucous crowd gathered to cheer on politicos as they competed in what has become a beloved Washington tradition. It wasn\u2019t the Congressional Baseball Game, which was being held across town the same night. But the rivalry was no less fierce at the National Press Club\u2019s Press and Politicians Spelling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heard-on-the-hill"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Orthographic glitterati? Press beat politicians at annual spelling bee - American Industry Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=276\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orthographic glitterati? Press beat politicians at annual spelling bee - American Industry Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On a muggy Wednesday evening, a raucous crowd gathered to cheer on politicos as they competed in what has become a beloved Washington tradition. It wasn\u2019t the Congressional Baseball Game, which was being held across town the same night. 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Sean Casten, D-Ill., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes of the week on Friday, May 15, 2026. (Tom Williams\\\/CQ Roll Call)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/?p=276#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/americanindustryreview.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Orthographic glitterati? 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