|
|
|
Click here to keep up with Galen's Speaking Schedule
Looking for a back issue of Mullings? They're in the
Archives
Click here
to join the Mullings Movement!
The Magic of the Medium
Monday August 4, 2003
Are you at all interested in how an appearance on a cable news chat show works? Really? Good. With both the House and Senate out and the President at Prairie Chapel Ranch, that's what I'm writing about this morning.
I was running GOPAC in the days of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal when I first started doing these shows. Attorney Ben Ginsberg, who was a regular guest in those days, gave me the best possible piece of advice: "Always go in prepared with something specific."
Watch the shows. If you look for it, you will soon be able to determine which on-air guests are prepared and which are - as we say in the biz - "phoning it in."
This is process for my regular weekend appearance on Tony Snow's Fox News Channel program. [Click here for a humorous look at my one and only Donahue appearance]
Thursday the producer calls to tell me whether he wants me on Saturday or Sunday and to check on whether I'll be in Washington or on the road.
On Friday afternoon a segment producer will go over the topics they will want my counterpart,
Susan Estrich, and me to discuss and the exact time we'll be on.
Assuming we'll be on Saturday at 1:30 pm, I start my preparation at about 10:00 Saturday morning, looking over the wires, and reading the major political stories in the NY Times, the Washington Post and - because Susan lives in LA - the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. I read the California papers so I have something to throw at her, and to be ready in case she tosses something at me.
I print out pieces of articles, polling data, and specific points I want to make. The preparation process takes about an hour.
I leave the house at about 12:35 to get to the Fox studios on Capitol Hill by about 1:00 pm. They offer a car service, but there are always places to park on Capitol Hill on weekends so I drive myself in the Mullmobile.
Getting there a half hour early gives me the opportunity to visit with other guests - military, foreign affairs, political, and national security experts - who are about to go on, or are just coming off, the air. I get a first-hand analysis of current events from specialists without having to make a bunch of phone calls.
About 20 minutes before my segment I get made up (about a 5-7 minute process), then I go over my printed notes, transferring the most salient points to a reporter's notebook which I will take onto the set with me.
I also put on my earpiece which is officially called an IFB - for Internal Feed Back. I have my own IFB which gives me a certain standing among the other guests in the Green Room. I also have my own makeup, which I use when I am on the road.
With about three minutes to go, I drift down toward the studio. When the previous segment ends the network goes into break. A floor director will open the door to the studio, I will go in, sit down, be wired up with a microphone, say hello to Tony Snow (next to whom I am sitting), then say hello to Susan (who is generally in Los Angeles) over the IFB.
The floor director will give Tony the countdown which goes something like: "10 seconds to the bump � five, four, three �" and point to Tony's camera. He will introduce the two of us ("And now for our Political Odd Couple �") and ask the first question.
There have been times when that has been the last time Tony has been able to get into the discussion as neither Susan nor I are shy about - as in the line from the Big Chill - "keeping the conversation lively."
About four-and-a-half minutes later Tony thanks us, we say goodbye on the air and another break ensues during which we say off-the-air goodbyes, the producers thank us, I get unwired and go back to the Green Room to remove my makeup.
Assuming I have gotten to talk about half the time, all of that is for two minutes of air time.
The process when I am on the road is about the same, except I often do my piece from a local uplink facility or a PBS station. Having my own IFB and my own makeup is an answer to the unasked question: Have you done this before?
Once, during the days when the security folks still pulled people out of line at the gate for random checks at airports, I was selected. The woman searching through my briefcase came across the baggie with my makeup in it. She looked at me, looked at her partner, looked at the makeup, and looked at me again.
I shrugged, smiled, and said, "Sometimes I just need to feel pretty!"
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today:
A link to my Donahue adventure, Susan Estrich's bio, photos of my IFB and my makeup; a pretty funny Mullfoto; and a good Catchy Caption.
--END --
Copyright © 2003 Richard A. Galen
Current Issue |
Secret Decoder
Ring | Past
Issues | Email
Rich | Rich
Who?
Copyright �2002 Richard
A. Galen | Site design by Campaign
Solutions. | |
|
� 
