"I will bet good money the man who took this picture had a card saying "PRESS" tucked into his fedora."
Ah, the Press. Without them, we would never have such convenience in the spread of information. Part of the spread of such information is to go to locations and find important stories to cover.
Back when hats were regularly fashionable, the way someone from the Press would have designated their status was to have their press pass in their hat, between the hat and the band around the hat's crown.
Because of Press details needing to be shown, it was typically a white placard with the word Press printed on it. The reporter might need both hands free to take notes.
This seems to be a little less common nowadays, especially with hats falling out of style in the last half-century. Still, they act as a reminder of the presence of a reporter and are more convenient than wearing a tag anywhere else.
Because Real Life examples are completely pointless, please refrain from adding any examples from reality. Check out Media Scrum, Hat of Authority and Fedora of Asskicking.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime And Manga
- In Adolf, Toge and other reporters wear these when covering different events. As the beginning of the story takes place in 1936, it's not as anachronistic as other examples.
Comic Books
- Some of the appearances of Clark Kent during the Golden Age shows him reporting outside with a fedora hat and the Daily Planet's press note there.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: In "The Return From the Dead" Dr. Psycho included a fedora with a press pass shoved into the band in his disguise as the reporter Tinhorn.
Comic Strips
- Roland Hedley Junior of Doonesbury began his journalist career in syndicated newspapers. He was issued a "Press" pass for his hat, where it would hide among the buckles and straps. The pass likely disappeared (hard to tell) when Hedley became a television correspondent. It's gone for good now that Hedley is reduced to blogging for sustenance.
- Elvie: Elvie wears one when she conducts interviews.
- Mallard Fillmore used to be a roving reporter, replete with woolen jacket and fedora with "Press" card inserted into the hatband. Since becoming a television journalist, however, this hat has disappeared; the tacky jacket hasn't.
- Scoopy, a literal newshound in the British Anthology Comic Nutty, had a peaked cap with a pom-pom rather than a fedora, but it still had his Press card attached to it.
Fan Works
- Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. 'Buster' Kincaid of the Interplanetary Telepress thanks to there being No New Fashions in the Future, despite living in the year 2009.
...a pale belted trench coat, collared shirt fastened with buttons instead of magnaclips, and a battered brown fedora with an identicard stuck in the hatband—the word PRESS was punched in tiny dots into the card's surface.
Films — Animated
- Cats Don't Dance is set in The '40s, and a throng of reporters complete with press tags in their hats attend the press conference of studio honcho L. B. Mammoth. An earlier gaggle of reporters appear, sporting not only tagged fedoras but flashbulb cameras, to drool over Mae West at the Brown Derby.
Films — Live-Action
- Back in Circulation: Timothea the reporter doesn't wear such a hat, but her photographer sidekick does, with the standard PRESS pass in the band, as they approach the train wreck. She has to tell him to take it off, as they're planning to sneak through the police roadblock by pretending to be doctors.
- The Brady Bunch: When Peter gets a slot on the school newspaper he calls himself "Scoops" Brady and wears a hat with his press credentials.
- Parodied in a few The Three Stooges skits (such as Three Little Beers). The Stooges will disguise themselves as members of the press to get access to somewhere. So what do they do? Raid the men's washroom and take some "PRESS" buttons (from some machine) and use those to get in. But Curly, being the nincompoop, would wear a "PULL" button instead and break their ruse.
Live-Action TV
- In an episode of Police Squad!, a mob hitman wears one of these hats and the guard immediately lets him pass... even though said hitman is making no effort to conceal the numerous guns he's carrying.
Let's Play
- Lampshaded in The Dark Id's Let's Play of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, when he comes across a file in the Raccoon City newspaper's headquarters consisting of a picture of a zombie with the caption "Scoop!" written on the back of the picture; The Dark Id pokes fun at the caption's Antiquated Linguistics.
Tabletop Games
- In "Transtoony Space", the Toon parody of Transhuman Space, Intrepid Reporter Pumpernickel Jones wears a such a hat (and, as a walking loaf of bread, nothing else). One of his Beliefs and Goals is that having a card that says "PRESS" prevents anybody from stopping him going anywhere.
Video Games
- Team Fortress 2 has the Killer Exclusive
as a cosmetic item for all the classes, mimicking this trope.
- Fallout 4: potential companion Piper's unique press cap which is not a Fedora like most examples of the trope but a Newsboy cap.
Web Comics
- Stand Still, Stay Silent: In the panel introducing the three reporters coming to interview the crew after the first expedition, the two male reporters are wearing a hat with a white card sticking out. It helps that hats seem to have come back in fashion in urban areas in the comic's setting.
- In Fillbert, Maple wears a Press Hat during the Noir Episode.
- One El Goonish Shive sketchbook entry features George as an old-timey newspaper reporter, taking notes on a notepad while wearing a proper hat with a "press" card. He's completely oblivious to the superhero flying by in the background.
Web Original
- Meowth wears a Press Hat in the SiIvaGunner King For Another Day Tournament with "KFAD" on it.
Western Animation
- In the "Beaver Fever" episode of The Angry Beavers, members of the press are seen wearing a variant of these hats; rather than having square cards tucked into their hatbands, however, they appear to have round pinback buttons saying "Press" on their hats.
- If Futurama is any indication, reporters will still be wearing them in the 31st Century. Most notably Scoop Chang of the Beijing Bugle, who both wear hats with notes about being reporters.
- Toby Determined is the journalist for the local newspaper in Gravity Falls. He desperately wants to be a real reporter, but fittingly for someone who can't really get anything right, he wears a fedora with a slip of paper that just says "HAT" on it, rather than "PRESS".
- Harley Quinn (2019): In the episode, “Metamorphosis”, Volcana wears one while posing as a reporter for Lex News in order to help Poison Ivy sabotage her pageant.
- In an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the Cutie Mark Crusaders wear hats with press credentials when acting as reporters.
- In The Little Rascals short "All the Loot That's Fit to Print", Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Porky and Pete wear these after they become amateur newspaper reporters. Darla and Spanky wear their press cards on their lapels.
- In The Simpsons, Martin Prince wears one of these hats when he works for the school newspaper.
