Dateline: the offices of Videolink, Watertown MA, 1 May
Today is just a single event: hop in my car and drive 80 or so miles to Watertown, just west of Boston, to some non-descript office building where a small video satellite service does remotes for Fox News. I will be going on with Tony Snow, Fox’s main weekend news anchor, but of course he’ll be in New York or—more likely—Washington DC.
Meanwhile, I get to visit lovely Watertown. Ah, the glamour of network news and appearing on national TV.
I hang out on a small couch as the sole technician works at his desk about 4 feet from me. It is a tiny remote studio. My man picks out a nice shot of downtown Boston for my backdrop. It’s the classic shot that frames both Hancock and Prudential from the perspective of a bridge over the Charles (probably the one I rode my bike over for years from Brookline to Harvard).
I have a good half-hour to kill, since I arrive just before noon and I’m not on until 12:35. I’m told to expect a roughly five-minute interview. I work on a written response to an email interview from the website Enter Stage Right to bide my time.
Then it’s 12:25 and they put me in the chair and wire me up. Tech asks if I want to have the actual picture of the show placed onto camera, so I’d look into the camera and see the show (sort of a twist on the old trick with mirrors, but raising some scary “live or Memorex” emotions—I mean, who the hell ever watches themselves live on TV!). I resist and say I’ll just stare into the lens without the distraction.
Snow comes on and gets both my name and the book title wrong. Nice big open Q to begin with, so I bat it around for a while, secretly debating in the back of my head if I should have corrected him on either but figuring it would be brought to his attention. It was, and he apologized, saying he should have done better given he was actually reading the book (he told me in the ear beforehand he was half-way through and really liked it; true or not, most media people seem honest enough to tell you up front when they have not read it at all but just scanned the media packet).
All in all, the interview seemed to go well, and Snow talked on air about having me back (perhaps just him being nice over the name thing, but nice to say nonetheless). So I’m out the door with my instant tape in hand and back on US 24 south for the ride home.
After mowing the lawn and swimming at the Y with the kids, I actually finally watch the Headline News and Miller tapes. Now I know what the Public Affairs Officer meant by my being turned a bit on Headline News. I do a better job on Miller, where I was clearly charged to impart a lot of info in a very short space of time! But Snow (reviewing that tape too) was clearly the best so far in terms of posture. Why? Producer said something to me in my ear just before we went live, telling me to square up my shoulders. You’d think it would be so easy to get center in front of the camera, but it’s actually harder than you think.
So day ends with mix of bad and good. Site down for day due to power outage at host, but another national TV appearance with no gaffes (I don’t count the name thing, because it forced him to both correct and apologize, which only helps people remember the name), some real fun time with my kids, some personal time with my John Deere, and a chance to sleep in my own bed (with a beautiful woman no less!).
It feels very good to be home.
