It's been a bit of a whirlwind for the Viva Chuck Todd staff since we touched down in Denver yesterday. Yes, you are correct in the fact that we were supposed to fly out last Saturday, but poor managerial skills by our office manager Kelly resulted in her delegating the travel booking responsibilities to one of the interns; who in turn booked us tickets to the Republican Convention in St. Paul leaving last Saturday. Yep, she transposed the events and dates and gave us literally tickets to nowhere (no offense St. Paul).So we finally made it to the mile high city and got to see history first-hand. And that history would be a live Morning Joe taping at Sam's #3 diner in Downtown Denver. Angels sang as we walked through the door and saw the lights, the cameras and the back of Scarborough and Mika's heads. Through the glare we were able to see our man Willie and Ol' Man Barnacle. Simply...we wept. Once we composed ourselves, we split into teams to notify the appropriate people that the staff of Viva Chuck Todd had arrived. It's not presumptuous, that's just the way we roll.
And let us just say right now, that there were never a more hospitable group of people than the Morning Joe staff and their guests. We met everyone. Scarborough, Mika, Ol' Man Barnacle, David Schuster, Jonathan Capehart, Andrea Mitchell, Courtney Hazelet and of course, Our Man Willie. Who, lit up and welcomed us like a family member when we introduced ourselves. When presented with their Chuckloyte packets, Both Joe and Willie sincerely enjoyed getting their honorary Chuckolyte cards and Joe slapped his Chuckolyte pin on his lapel immediately. Willie in fact gave us a moment of his valuable time to personally address the Viva Chuck Todd fans along with the lovely Ms. Hazelett.
Once the excitement of being in the presence of such 21st Century media greatness ebbed, we realized that there were a couple of people who, shall we say, we have been less than cricket with. The first being Ol' Man Barnacle. Our editor Paul was chatting it up with him in quite a convivial manner which caused us to breathe a sigh of relief. It appears that Ol' Man Barnacle likes his curmudgeonly title and Viva Chuck Todd. He too enjoyed getting his Chuckolyte membership packet and shared some great Pat Buchanan stories with us. A true mensch.
Another chap we were a little nervous about confronting was Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart. Let's be frank, there's only so much ribbing a gentleman can take about his fashion sense. Well, Capehart laughed out loud in astonishment when our editor Paul introduced himself. Capehart, personable to say the least and was all quite good humored about the whole thing. The two of them even compared their silk Gordian knot cufflinks. Trust us, we rolled our eyes too. Capehart was kind enough to give us a moment of his time as well:
There's plenty more to report on what happened this morning, but we'll leave it there for right now. We have some absolutely plastered staff to scoop up and get into a taxi. But tomorrow we will be on the street in front of the MSNBC media megalith interviewing actual Chuck Todd fans and maybe we'll hear from the surprise MSNBC personality as well.
7 comments:
I was wondering what's going on over at MSNBC this week. So far the coverage has been horrible with all of the technical difficulties and the pundits arguing with each other. I have to say I watched Joe yesterday morning and winced the whole time at his childish rant, so it was funny to see Jon Stewart poking fun at the network and at all of the on-screen arguing. Doesn't anyone there have any station loyalty? Why can't Chuck step in and bitchslap them all? Chuck, Gene, Pat and Rachel are the only reasons I'm still watching this week. Hopefully they can all get their act together, because it's getting more and more painful to watch.
My big problem with the Mothership, is that the two speeches that should have been covered, John Kerry, and Brian Schwitzer's, were not aired until after the fact and only then were aired as highlights. I heard both those men tore McCan't a new one. Stop arguing and posturing, and start covering the convention!
Re Gov. Brian Sschwitzer's speech, check out C-Span's website. You may find it there. Let it suffice to say we have a "new", colorful personality who will add vitality as an NBC guest!
MSNBC coverage of the convention has been horrible. I finally decided to watch PBS from 8-11 last night. They actually showed more than 1 speech per hour. I know MSNBC is trying to sell personalities, and they have done a good job, but when all these people do restate themselves every 5 minutes, it gets old. I thought they were suppose to show the convention.
It’s like the NBC/MSNBC advance team got off the train and put their remote location right there. Between the train whistles blowing, the smack down between Joe and Keith, Chris and Keith, and David and Chuck egged on by Brian it’s like amateur hour. I’ve gone to C-Span with checks to see if Chuck is on. If he’s on air then I watch MSNBC/NBC.
The Mothership has been mostly unwatchable, except for The Chuck, Norah & Rachel. KO acts like we're tuning in just to see him. I wish he'd dial his ego back a few clicks. I am pleased for the Dean of the Electoral College. As expected, he & Maddow are showing they are the future of political coverage, and that's a good thing.
This was a great post. Willie & Courtney seem like genuinely nice people. It was cool to see them chilling off the set.
VCT - keep it coming. Very fresh - I love it.
Now I get it. You've been too busy schmoozing with MSNBC people instead of keeping in touch with your friends.
Post a Comment