MSNBC: Spot News – Sarah Palin drops out

I was DC’s senior producer for MSNBC on a day that was supposed to be a walk in the park.  It was the day before Independence Day, and MSNBC was on a condensed schedule, set to go off the air at 3pm – there would be no MSNBC primetime.  It had been 8 days since the unfortunate death of Michael Jackson (and Farrah Fawcett), and nearly all of MSNBC’s broadcast this July 3rd was being run out of Burbank, California, with Chris Jansing as the anchor on-site, for Michael Jackson memorial coverage.

For most of the day, DC wasn’t even paged by the control room.  I was under the radar, and loving every minute of it… until Gov. Sarah Palin decided to make news in Alaska.  I could start to feel growing commotion on the Nightly News editorial call in the afternoon: Sarah Palin was going to convene a press conference for local media in the back yard of her Wasilla home, set to give a big announcement that would remain a mystery until its delivery.  The press conference was set to start at (coincidentally) 3pm.

Due to the remote nature of Palin’s residence, no live cabling was allowed (or even possible), so NBC’s local affiliate up in Alaska, KTUU, would have to shoot the announcement to tape, and feed it live via their satellite truck to the larger NBC community.  So, not only were people itching for this news, but they were also itching further at the thought of this quick tape turn around.  MSNBC was itching that FOX and/or CNN might beat them in getting that taped feed on air.  So, by 2:45pm, the EP for MSNBC’s dayside coverage that day was sending emails to the entire team, and making phone calls to senior producers (including me) that MSNBC would be extending its airtime, and stalling, basically, until we knew what the news was and could get it to air.

When about 3:15pm rolled around, the entire broadcast community was hit with a bombshell.  The wires, circulating before any of the local reporters had even left Palin’s home, read: “Palin to drop out as governor, will not run for second term, possible exit from politics for good.”  I could forget about my slow day at that point.  Our dayside coverage was officially extended until 5pm, and now both New York and DC scrambled to get guests on the air (any guest – anyone under the sun – who could be camera-ready  or on the phone) to talk about Palin.  New York had stand-by anchor Alex Witt in front of a camera, and had CNBC Washington correspondent John Harwood on the air, by phone, within minutes.  I did my part and had MSNBC anchor David Shuster join the coverage on the phone as well.  You can view the breaking news coverage, as it happened in the minutes after Palin’s press conference, below.  (You will notice there is no video of Palin giving the announcement that she wouldn’t seek reelection, because it was still so early the KTUU had not fed the material yet).

As the minutes went by, more coverage (and hence, more options to toss to) began to surface.  KTUU had fed the press conference in its entirety, and MSNBC aired it as such; KTUU had its local reporter back in the newsroom, able to contribute to MSNBC’s air; I had gotten off the phone with NBC News Deputy Political Director Mark Murray, who agreed to do a hit by phone, and then would head to the bureau, camera-ready within 15 minutes.  Nightly News would have a crosstalk out of Washington with NBC News Chief White House correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd, and our assignment desk joined me in the scramble to get more contributors for air.  Below you can view a clip from later on in the afternoon, now with Palin’s full remarks fed in from Alaska, and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent, and frequent political contributor, Andrea Mitchell joining the conversation by phone as well.  (Andrea would, the very next day, be dispatched to Wasilla to cover the story from Alaska, and even get an interview with Governor Palin).

By 4pm, my day got better.  The senior producer in New York for Hardball with Chris Matthews called me up and asked me if a make-shift studio team could be put together by 5pm for a special edition of Hardball, which would air for an indefinite period of time.  David Shuster would anchor the special broadcast, but he would need make-up and a full team of stage hands… soon.  Talking with the desk, we were able to put together (thankfully, with what we had already) enough studio technicians to run a broadcast out of Washington.  I was on the phone with DC’s MSNBC director to get a make-up artist booked, and by 4:30pm we had everyone present and accounted for.  David Shuster was put in our flashcam studio box, fully made-up, with a stage manager, and a technician next door operating the robocam and communicating with a technical production manager in New York (there would be no control room out of DC).  I had three other guest camera locations ready to go by 5pm (one robotic, two that required studio technicians, which the desk was able to provide), and needless to say, we made air!

You can view a segment from the special edition of Hardball below.  (Take note that, in the quad-box set-up, every one of the contributors and camera locations were run out of our Washington bureau, under my oversight).

The special edition aired for 3 hours.  Compared alongside the special broadcasts of CNN and even FOX, MSNBC stayed on Palin the longest (FOX stayed on the air about Palin until 7pm – we lasted until 8pm).  Even though it was the day before Independence Day, and ratings are typically slow, the broad public fascination with Palin caused the ratings to pick up slightly, and MSNBC’s ratings were undoubtedly helped by staying on the subject for the longest.  The spot news operation was a success, and our team in DC was given a huge thank you from the entire MSNBC staff in New York.  The hard work certainly did not go unnoticed!