A tornado tears across southwestern Missouri, visiting devastation on the small town of Joplin. The dramatic news breaks in network TV newsrooms in New York in the early evening hours of May 22. What next? ¶ If you’re a booker for one of the networks’ morning programs, the first rule is this: Get there. Fast. Being first on the scene often means getting “the get” — securing interviews with the most newsworthy and compelling people. ¶ Bookers, or, more formally, “segment producers,” don’t shoot video or pictures or collect facts that correspondents report. Their job is to persuade a suddenly famous nobody to share his or her story on air with millions of strangers, preferably from a couch in a New York studio. Live television demands a constant flow of talking heads; bookers are the people who wrangle, cajole, sweet-talk — and often pay for — those heads to speak. ¶ Speed is the biggest advantage for the small army of people who produce morning television, the most competitive part of the 24-7 news cycle. In the elbow-throwing TV booking business, being first can mean nailing an exclusive that denies competitors the same interviews. In other words, the “Today” show’s gain is a loss for “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “Early Show” and the cable networks. And vice versa. Read full article > >

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For morning TV’s ‘bookers,’ a constant race to secure ratings-grabbing guests

Karin Korpowski-Gallo , who confronted President Obama this week about losing her job with the National Zoo, said Friday that she’s scheduled to speak soon with the White House Presidential Personnel Office about the possibility of a new government job. Korpowski-Gallo, who is slated to lose her job early next month, heard back from White House aides after Obama said he would investigate her situation during a town hall meeting hosted by CBS News on Wednesday. “When this all happened to me, I never once thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel, I definitely thought there was going to be something on the other end,” she told CBS’s “The Early Show” Friday morning. (Watch video of her interview above or here .) Read full article > >

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Federal worker who confronted Obama hears back from the White House (Video)

At the CBS “Early Show,” the entire team got fired. Better to stop playing a well-nigh unwinnable game.

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The Media Equation: To Beat ‘Today,’ Look to Tomorrow