Dateline: Amtrak Acela Express from NYC to Boston, 18 May 2004
This day was definitely fun.
Started off by finishing yesterday’s blog from my hotel bed while eating room-service breakfast (there’s just something about eggs benedict in bed—especially when my publisher is picking up the tab).
It was easy to pack up my gear, because I didn’t have any. So I reconstituted my clothes from yesterday, ironing heavily, and caught my CNN-supplied car downstairs after I checked out of the Algonquin.
See ya later Dorothy . . ..
First up today is my appearance on “Dolans Unscripted” with the couple who serve as hosts—Ken and Daria Dolan. The blurb in my Putnam media schedule says their show reaches 30 million homes nationwide via CNNfn (my first time on this network). If true, I’ll be happy if just one out of every 300 homes watching today buys my book (you do the math).
Upon arriving, it’s the usual preparation drill at CNN, but this time I tell make-up to go light on my neck as I don’t need all that stuff on my collar again. A very nice production assistant then walks me into this huge, two-story-high room on the fifth floor of the Time Warner building. It is stunningly large and contains the desks of dozens of CNN media people all crammed together in irregular clumps. In the middle of the room is a studio set-up with standing walls that only go up about 8 feet, so it’s sort of a fish-bowl effect.
I stand behind one studio wall, waiting to go on while Ken and Daria Dolan are taking calls on their show. I can see them on a giant screen on the far side of this cavernous room, along with separate screens for both CNN and Headline News. The volume is turned too low to hear, which is good, because I can hear them live over the fake wall. What’s amazing is the time lag on the screen at the far end of the room—almost 2 seconds. That’s how long it takes for their feed to go all the way down to Atlanta and then back to NY.
I am a bit nervous but pretty psyched as well. I am well rested and feeling much better for starting the Claritin. I am told the Dolans have the book and have read it, so that helps put me at ease. I had watched them a bit last night and knew Ken was the voluble one and Daria the calmer one, so I was ready for their approach.
During the commercial break they walk me into position and I sit across the table from both of them. It’s a bit spooky because the big camera just to the left of Ken has a monitor that I need to avoid looking at. So I just decide I’ll short-focus my eyes on Ken and Daria and tune out the rest of the entire scene. Not easy in general, but these two are so warm in person that I find it a snap.
Turns out Ken is former navy who did a stint at the college (actually, the Officers Candidate School) way back when (he’s a Vietnam vet), so the three of us chat amiably before we go live. The copy of the book is right there on the high table we ring (we’re on bar stools), so I know the segment will focus on that and not just sarin gas or Nick Berg.
The difference between this segment and yesterday’s remote on Headline News is like night and day. I perform about as well as I ever have and know it real-time, so my ease is transmitted through the camera (impossible to fake—at least for me). We cover a bunch of good stuff from the book, which Ken praises profusely and repeatedly, and then it’s over—like all good ones—in a flash.
Right on the spot before I leave Ken asks me to come on their new radio show that broadcasts on Saturday mornings and I agree.
I then have the driver take me to Putnam’s HQ on Hudson Street in lower Manhattan. There Steve Oppenheim (my PR director) gives me a vacant office for the afternoon. He orders me some lunch and then his assistant Liz brings me about 100 books to sign (most with personal references) to just about everyone at Putnam/Penguin in NY. It’s a neat perk for people who work there, and I’m more than happy to do it. But it takes a couple of hours to wind my way through the various lists of names, at one point managing to cut my thumb while opening a box with a pair of scissors that are incredibly sharp. I’m probably the first author to suffer a real bleeder while signing books, but I survive thanks to some band-aids and tape from Steve.
While in the office I also do a half-hour radio show in Oklahoma City OK via phone. It’s called “You Talkin’ to Me?” and it’s hosted by Brad Copeland and Mike Steely on SUPERTALK AM-930/WKY. They both have read the June Esquire article that’s out on stands almost everywhere now (“Mr. President, Here’s How to Make Sense of Our Iraq Strategy”) and praise it profusely. They ask good questions so the time flies. Near the end, I realize they haven’t mentioned the book much, so I plug it hard at the end, plus this site, proving I’m getting savvier about my appearances.
Rest of the afternoon I catch up on email.
At one point, Liz comes into the office with a very odd question pursed on her lips: “Do you think there are any situations where torture is justified when interrogating terrorist suspects?”
That one came out of the blue!
Turns out that if I answer “yes,” I get to go on a major network’s news show tonight, but if I say no, then maybe—just maybe—they’ll have me on to discuss the book in the future.
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
A moral quandary?
Not really. Torture rarely works and higher-ups even more rarely trust the material produced by these methods, so the answer is no, and I resist my chance at an on-camera moment of Dukakis-like reasoning to a loaded question.
Around 5:15 I head out of Putnam, stopping by Steve Oppenheim’s office for a last chat. Turns out Steve’s just got an email from a major publication asking if I’ll participate in a group interview with a bunch of national security heavyweights regarding Iraq for an upcoming issue. We each will be interviewed separately by phone and then our answers compared in the magazine. It’s a non-traditional source for this sort of info—closer to MTV than PBS. But it’ll be impossible to resist, as young-minds-to-mold is always a worthy target of opportunity.
I can’t wait to see how the Naval War College will react to my appearing in this magazine, which is a ways beyond the pale that stretches to include Esquire.
Downstairs to another car and driver and then back to CNN’s new digs in the Time Warner building just built off of Columbus Circle. I’m through security for the third time in about 28 hours. This time I spy Jeanne Moost of Headline News (she of the humorous segments) walking by. She’s almost six-feet-tall in heels, to my amazement.
Up to the 7th floor this time and a new make-up room just down the hall from CNN’s main studio in NY. I get to share the green room with the former PM of Israel Ehud Barak. He and his handler don’t acknowledge me at all (don’t even glance at me) despite my being the only other person in the room. Chilly pair, although I will say one thing about Barak: the man loves pineapple. Guy ate the entire row on the fruit tray, often forking it into his mouth directly from the plate.
I’m up soon after Barak. My handler takes me into the studio area and I stand with the sound guy just behind the wall that I’m sure looks great on TV but is actually all 1x2’s and plywood from behind. I get set-up while commercials roll and then talk with Mr. Dobbs while Bill Schneider drones on from some “swing state.” Dobbs puts on his reading glasses and glances over a xerox of the Esquire piece and something he’s highlighted. I rack my brain to remember what appears right after the really big “W” in the text. Beats the hell outta me.
The interview goes well. I’m very relaxed and handle two pointed questions from him with relative aplomb. He mentions the book prominently and I keep my answers short enough so that he never has to interrupt me. A good sign: it’s over in a flash and I’m in the car heading to Penn Station within minutes. I catch the 7pm Acela instead of the 7:30 regional, managing to land a bad gyro, a tall-boy Bud, and two Krispe Kremes for my celebratory feast.
It’s been a good day and I end my Accidental Media Tour on a high note.
Here’s Today's Catch:
REFERENCES:
“Suicide Bomber Kills President of Iraqi Council: Attack Near U.S. Offices: At Least 6 Civilians Die—Uncertainty in Advance of Power Transfer,” by Ian Fisher, New York Times, 18 May, p. A1.
“As Violence Deepens, So Does Pessimism,” by Daniel Williams, Washington Post, 18 May, p. A1.
“Old Iraq Army Could Provide A Leader, Jordan’s King Says,” by Alan Cowell, NYT, 18 May, p. A8.
“Kerry Feels for Footing On Country’s Role in Iraq: Supporting the troops while keeping Nader sidelined,” by Jodi Wilgoren and David E. Rosenbaum, NYT, 18 May, p. A18.
[Advertisement] “Staffers Live for the Party,” Discovery/Times Channel, USA Today, 18 May, p. E9.
“India’s Stocks Shudder, With a Wide Impact: Emerging-Markets Indexes Fall to Year Lows on Election Results, Interest Rates and Middle East,” by Craig Karmin, Wall Street Journal, 18 May, p. C1.
“Gay Couples Marry in Massachusetts: Hundreds Tie Knot On Day One, but Questions Remain,” by Alan Cooperman and Jonathan Finer, WP, 18 May, p. A1.
“Health agency present global plan to fight obesity,” by Nanci Helimich, USA Today, 18 May, p. 4A.
“U.N. Touts Biotech to Boost Global Food Supply,” by Justin Gillis, WP, 18 May, p. A2.
| Permalink |
