On Friday, I spent the morning taping a segment at CNN for an upcoming special that will announce Time magazine's "Person of the Year." I was there in my Gawker capacity, sitting in a conversation pit with interlocutor Soledad O'Brien, plus conservative political blogger John Hinderaker (of Power Line), liberal political blogger Steven Clemons (Washington Note), mommy-dog-lost-my-job blogger Heather Armstorng (Dooce), and "net guru" Omar Wasow (co-founder of BlackPlanet). Our task was to speculate on who should be "Person of the Year" based on our own opinions and the likely preferences of our respective audiences.
It was a novel experience -- the only TV I'd done in the past was for travel segments, where you're outside running around in your sweaty T-shirt. Here, I was professionally spackled with foundation and some kind of bronzer or something that came out of a spray gun. When finished, I had the flawless complexion of an android meant to resemble a twelve-year-old boy. I don't mind doing these things, but the two menfolk at Gawker -- Alex Balk and myself -- prefer to have our photogenic ladies do TV, because really, who wants to look at us, when you could be looking at them. However, the CNN folk wanted one of us boys, as the girls had just started and were not "high profile" enough yet. Laff.
Anyway, Soledad was super peppy and friendly, castigating me for not having more Gawker celeb fluff ready for her to read in the early morning when she gets up. Since the midterm elections had just wrapped up, politics (and the two political bloggers) largely dominated our discussion. Hinderaker was jovial and in better spirits than he might have been, for someone whose philosophical comrades had taken an electoral beating. Clemons was earnest and friendly, though he could not shut his laptop off, as he relentlessly reviewed and approved comments being made on his blog (he actually carried his laptop into the elevator, open and loading a web page, for which I mocked him without mercy). Wasow caused a little kerfuffle at the beginning of taping, when he asked to be referred to as something other than a blogger, as he does not blog; the peanut gallery cycled through about ten different ideas, settling on "Internet guru" I think, over even more objectionable choices like "techie" etc. Heather Armstrong didn't have much to say about the political stuff, except noting that her readers were interested in Nancy Pelosi's rise to Speaker of the House. She was quite charming though, and brought a giant digital camera with an emasculatingly huge lens, taking photos of us all in various undignified moments (I think she shot me while I lifted my jacket so a producer could wrap my mic cable around my waist). Check her blog this coming week for much more interesting photos than the boring self-portrait above.
After the taping, it took me almost two hours to get home, as Columbus Circle closed down due to a suspicious package in the subway. Subways and buses were either not running, packed to the gills, or stuck in traffic as various streets were closed off by gun-toting cops and Secret Service dudes. At least it was a nice day for a long walk. I believe the segment will run as part of a hour-long special on December 16, and a few more run times thereafter. Television history in the making I'm sure.
