Bad Investment, in the Long Run...
I just overlapped one year with John Heilemann at Northwestern, and vaguely remember him working on The Daily Northwestern while my work-study job freshman year had me back in The Comp Shop of Students Publishing Company, inputting classifieds and helping to cut-and-paste ads (manually!)**
He was gone by the time I stepped up and served as a reporter and wire services editor at the paper: He was Medill ('87) and I was Medill ('90). I haven't aged like that, though, thankfully... (clean living and all ;-)
For the title of one of his books, he swiped my line about doubling down, from my earlier blog post about the sickening way the Affordable Health Act was passed into law. Here.
There's still time for the politicians to step back up to the plate and get this thing right... Will they listen here, or double down?
I'm hoping a new crew brings a new attitude and humbles some of the players who just can't fathom that what they twisted and compromised to get through -- and tried unsuccessfully to sell to the American public through liberal media mouthpieces represented on Journolist...
Now, he's signed on for a political show on Showtime "The Circus" with Mark Halperin and Mark McKinnon. Don't expect much.
I don't think John is all that an original thinker, or much to look at either. Both matter when you are talking pay-tv, right?
He's got the connections, but politically? I think the public is pretty much fed up with talking heads, and we really don't need the oversaturation of yet another show glamorizing the political candidates.
Not a wise investment, in the long run.
Put me on the record now, as saying that...
Showtime President David Nevins, who has known Halperin since high school, said the show will be in the same vein of their weekly sports series, "A Season With," which shows the behind the scenes drama around a sports team's season (this year's subject is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish).
"I want the nitty gritty of how campaigns works. I want access to Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, but I also want the people behind the candidates," Nevins said in an interview.
The trio approached Showtime about a documentary series about four months ago, and Nevins said he was immediately interested in the prospect of a real time documentary series as the election unfolded, instead of waiting until after election day. The show is being done with Bloomberg's blessing, though it is using completely separate production crews from Halperin and Heilemann's daily show "With All Due Respect," which is now also being broadcast on MSNBC.
"We can develop characters like any good story. You’ll develop characters and you’ll stay with them. We’ll find a compelling 23 year-old kid who dropped out of college to follow Marco Rubio on the road, we’ll stay with that kid," Nevins said. "Like any great television show* the audience identifies with characters and follows them."
Why do they keep throwing big money at the old ways of doing business, when they could be paying modestly to learn what is happening in the new world of America? #SharetheWealth #OutWiththeOld
Heilemann became a household name three years ago after he helped pen one of the most popular insider accounts of the 2008 presidential election. HBO later turned “Game Change” into a critically acclaimed movie focusing on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s selection of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
(Like President Obama, he's straight though...Writing the blockbuster book put Heilemann in the front row for the political ascendancy of Obama, who has known Heilemann since the late 1980s. Heilemann recalled that the future commander-in-chief -- “this tall, thin, striking African-American guy” -- asked to borrow a cigarette outside Harvard University’s law school library in their first encounter.
Also noted: Heilemann was not enrolled in Harvard law, but earned a masters degree from the JFK School of Government. He's a professional schmoozer, all right... )
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* Who the hell is going to watch not an episode, but a whole season following a college dropout who follows
They're just throwing money against the wall in the journalism world now, seeing what sticks... and what doesn't.
MORE on Heilemann's ways of thinking:
Style over substance.Heilemann said he recalled bumping into White House senior adviser David Plouffe on the campaign trail Monday and feeling skeptical as Plouffe ticked off his predictions for the president’s performance in each key state.“Every margin that he gave me was within one point of what they got the next day,” Heilemann recalled. “I’ve got to say I’m a cynical, jaded guy who’s done six of these presidentials and a lot more gubernatorial and senatorial elections. I’ve never seen people that confident, and I’ve never seen their confidence so totally bore out by the result. It was precision.”Heilemann said Obama’s strategy “blows apart” the political science theory that campaigns do not matter and election outcomes are often predetermined by economic indicators. He compared the Obama campaign’s ground game to a supercomputer and Romney’s operation to a few pocket calculators.
Not impressed...
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** and of course, reading reading reading the copy... same as when I was a papergirl for The Hammond Times in the 1980s: reading while rolling in the mid-afternoons, pre-delivery by bike, in all weather. Except on snowy Sundays, when sometimes I walked...
You can learn a lot by reading, you know, even if you're not a natural schmoozer.
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