On Tuesday, October 9, 2001, at 09:12 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
I've been doing semi-regular appearances on CNN for about four years. They'll send a car for you if you ask, no need to drive.
Which shows? When/ I'm a frequent watcher of CNN (though not CNN-FN or Lou Dobbs), and yet the only time I have seen you on t.v. was on an episode of Geraldo a year or two ago.
But I suppose I fall into the above category. I do TV interviews primarily because, in no particular order: (a) it's good experience; (b) it raises my profile and the profile of my employer; (c) management likes it; (d) I can try to inject some substance into what are typically superficial discussions.
Yes, I'd say you fit the profile.
I did NBC network evening news not long ago. I didn't feel like going into their bureau (about 15-20 minutes away),l so I had them come to my home. It took them about four hours from the time they arrived to the time they left, mostly lighting and setup. A large portion was B-roll of me typing dummy entries into Microsoft Passport, punctuated by me talking to their reporter in NYC via a speakerphone sitting on a chair while I pretended to look straight ahead, as if I were looking her in the eye. Sigh. They used about 7 seconds of what I said.
About right. Four hours of your time for 7 seconds of commentary. No wonder the networks are gradually going broke. "Typing dummy entries." Typical. Faking the news. (I had a sort of similar experience in '95 when the BBC wanted to interview me. I had to get up at 5 am for an 8 am flight to LA (I live an hour away from the airport), take a series of buses and shuttles to a hoity toity hotel in Hollywood, wait for 3 hours for Alvin and Heidi Toffler to be interviewed, then submit to their "let's have you do some fake stuff!" producer directions. I resisted doing the fake stuff, but they insisted. I pretended to be doing something crypto-like. They ended up using about a second of this elaborately-faked session. And they lifted my comments in such a way as to misrepresent what I said. I finally made my way back to LAX around 6, caught a late flight to SJO, and arrived back at my home around midnight. All for a meaningless snippet on a meaningless t.v. show seen by a few thousands Brits. Of course, were I a journalist or other such person, I would prominently list this in my resume. What a joke.) --Tim May, Corralitos, California Quote of the Month: "It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks." --Cathy Young, "Reason Magazine," both enemies of liberty.