[Infowarrior] - Inside CNN ¹ s Œ The Situation Room ¹

[Richard Forno]

Inside CNN¹s ŒThe Situation Room¹
http://www.examiner.com/a-130008~Inside_CNN_s__The_Situation_Room_.html
Patrick W. Gavin, The Examiner
Jun 8, 2006 7:00 AM (2 hrs 26 mins ago)

WASHINGTON - During a news break on CNN¹s ³The Situation Room,² a press
release from Congresswoman Jane Harman arrives in the e-mail inbox of Senior
Executive Producer Sam Feist at exactly 4:17 p.m. In the release, Harman
denounces the National Security Agency¹s tracking of phone calls in the
United States, made public in a recent USA Today story.

Feist, sitting in one of two control rooms needed for ³The Situation Room,²
wants to get Harman¹s release on the air immediately and tells host Wolf
Blitzer. Blitzer is in the studio down the hallway, sitting at his laptop in
a corner of the set and checking e-mail and breaking news. After hearing
Feist¹s pitch through his ear piece, Blitzer concurs and says that they
should push back the next planned story coming out of the break in order to
make room for the Harman release.

But not everyone in the control is convinced that this merits the buzz Feist
and Blitzer are giving it.

Someone calls out, ³Why are we making such a big deal out of Harman?²

Another: ³Feinstein and others have been saying this sort of thing all day
long.²

Feist pauses for two seconds ‹ a rare luxury in the warp-speed environment
that ³The Situation Room² is created in ‹ and re-queries Blitzer.

³Are we sure we want to go with this? Some are wondering if Harman¹s saying
anything new here.²

Twenty seconds until airtime.

³Absolutely, Sam² Blitzer says. ³She¹s the ranking Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee.²

Feist is creating a whirlwind of commotion all over his computer screen,
clicking and dragging and cutting and pasting and typing in order to
rearrange the lineup and turn Harman¹s release into broadcast material.

Above and in front of Feist are hundreds of television screens channeling
news feeds from around the world. Clocks and timers are everywhere.

Ten seconds.

Director Howie Lutt snaps production commands into his headset and punches
the air like a symphony conductor possessed ‹ ³ Roll B! Put it in! Stand by
A Š Roll B!² ‹ until Blitzer re-emerges on screen after the break.

(On air) ³And we¹re just getting this in ‹ our lead story. A statement from
the ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman of
CaliforniaŠ²

The newsroom breaths a bit more easy, having just turned a press release
into on-air material in the space of a few minutes. But such is life in ³The
Situation Room² ‹ the furthest thing possible from your daddy¹s news show.

Even for those who may still wax nostalgic for the old Cronkitean way of
doing the news ‹ an anchor behind a desk reading a teleprompter or throwing
to a packaged news segment or reporter ‹ you have to give credit to a news
show whose format actually requires the anchor ‹ Wolf Blitzer, in this case
‹ to bolster his fitness regimen in order to keep up with the demands of a
live, three-hour show.

³I spend an hour on the treadmill every morning to get in shape,² Blitzer
admits. ³It does take a lot out of you.² For the three-hour show (it airs at
4, 5 and 7 p.m.) Blitzer and nearly all of his guests remain standing.
Pacing, even.

³The Situation Room,² which debuted on CNN last August, is an impressive
technical feat and, in many ways, it¹s television for the ADD set. There¹s
the giant screen behind Blitzer that frequently gets chopped into six
separate windows broadcasting different feeds. There¹s the fancy graphic
designs. Cameramen take MTV-like tracking shots of the studio¹s monitors.
Blitzer pans to correspondents all around the world with wizard-like speed.
There¹s an ³Inside the Blogs² feature. Jack Cafferty asks a ³Question of the
Day² and reads viewer e-mail. Clocks let you know what time it is all over
the world. There are polls and data feeds and real time video and, of
course, the ever-present ticker along the bottom of your television screen.
The fast pace is intentional and meant to make the show feel ³fast² and
³developing² and ³happening now.² It may very well not be a coincidence
that, during The Examiner¹s visit, Floor Manager Chris Carter wore a Tommy
Armour athletic shirt designed to wick sweat away from one¹s body.

This whole technical circus may be sensory overload for some, but it¹s an
intentional attempt to bring cable news into the age of the Internet. ³The
Situation Room² is custom-built for raw, breaking news and they
intentionally shun falling into a regimented format from day to day.

³Times have changed,² Blitzer says. ³There are new capabilities and video
technologies and, especially with computers and the Internet, there was a
sense that viewers are capable of digesting more than one image at a time.²

The inspiration for ³The Situation Room² came to Blitzer, Feist and CNN¹s
Washington Bureau Chief David Bohrman following the 2004 Election Night.
Blitzer led CNN¹s coverage and, as they featured continuous reports from
correspondents around the country, information, updates and video feeds
filtered into CNN at a rapid clip. Still, it was frustrating to both Bohrman
and Feist that so much great satellite footage from affiliates went unused.

³David and Sam wondered how can we could convey CNN¹s unbelievable reach and
our hundreds of affiliates and video and satellites,² Blitzer explained.
³How do we get all of that material ‹ more graphically and vividly ‹ to our
viewers so they can see this enormous power that we have?²

Although ³The Situation Room² still trails cable ratings giant Fox News
Channel, their audience is improving and they have, on rare occasions,
bested Fox during the 5 and 6 p.m. timeslots in the coveted 25-54 year old
demographic.

The future success of ³The Situation Room² seems to hinge on two primary
factors. First, their eagerness to get the latest news on the air before
anybody else has the potential to present problems, such as broadcasting
incorrect information. Surprisingly, that has happened far less often than
you might suspect during ³The Situation Room¹s² ten month run, but the
potential for a major gaffe always lurks around the corner (after one
segment I witnessed, Blitzer had to ask his producers, ³Did I pronounce that
congressman¹s name correctly?²).

Blitzer thinks that the best buffer against faulty reporting is a good
staff. ³The staff we¹ve put together behind the scenes is amongst the best
in television news and everybody screens stuff,² Blitzer says. ³The front
man is the guy who¹s seen on television. I have a lot of stake ‹ my
credibility, my reputation ‹ and I have to rely on these people. If they
tell me it¹s good to go, I can¹t start arguing and asking, ŒHow do you
know?¹ I need to know they¹re not going to screw me.²

The other potential pitfall for ³The Situation Room²¹s approach is that the
need for speed could cause them to follow the frivolous. Since they need to
fill three hours of air time everyday, will they cut to a forest fire simply
because it¹s breaking and they have video? Does their system run the risk of
choosing triviality over depth?

Perhaps ³The Situation Room²¹s need for speed was most acutely seen when,
during President Bush¹s May 15 primetime speech on immigration reform, they
prematurely cut to a live video of President Bush reciting a few lines from
his speech. The fault wasn¹t theirs (Bush was cued early by a NBC stage
manager) but ³The Situation Room² managed to turn lemons into lemonades,
using the goof as a way to prove just how ³happening now² they really are.
They later issued a statement saying:

³NBC stage manager has now admitted he cued the president early and CNN was
the only network ready to go.²

Maybe even too eager to go live? That may prove to be the ultimate question
for ³The Situation Room.²
Patrick W. Gavin is The Examiner¹s associate editorial page editor. You can
e-mail him at pgavin at dcexaminer.com