The Magical Mystery C-SPAN Bus Tour

ABC's Jake Tapper poses with his old C-SPAN appearance. Newsweek's Fineman on board. Inevitably when you have a mammoth C-SPAN cruiser rolling around Washington D.C. for two days, there is going to be off color bus humor. "There's a couple of dead people in the back of the bus," cracked C-SPAN CEO and founder Brian Lamb Tuesday outside the offices of The Daily Caller. Without skipping a beat he added, "We throw people under the bus." To the contrary, journos were given the royal treatment Tuesday and Wednesday by C-SPAN employees such as Lamb, Communications Director Howard Mortman and communications aide (and certified C-SPAN junkie) Jeremy Art, among others. The Digital Bus, a technologically loaded vehicle worth $1 million, will travel cross country to connect with watchers. With a wistful look in his eyes, Lamb said he'd tour around the country on the bus "all the time" if he could. Newsweek's Howard Fineman hopped on board after accidentally coming across the gargantuan vehicle outside HuffPost offices on Pennsylvania Avenue. ABC's interim "This Week" host and White House correspondent Jake Tapper was on his way to lunch with his wife, Jennifer, when he spotted the beast. Tapper said his hellos as a C-SPAN employee turned up an old appearance by Tapper on the computer. The day was a Romper Room of journos on field trips from work. Daily Caller interns came on the bus as did reporters such as Jon Ward, Alex Pappas and Jonathan Strong and spokeswoman, Becca Glover Watkins. Alex Treadway, the publication's marketing director, chatted away with C-SPAN employees. At the HuffPost stop, three interns walked through along with the wild-haired reporter Dan Froomkin, National Editor Nico Pitney and Editor Michael Falcone. Asked how his internship is going, Jeremy Binckes joked, "When they let us out of the cage, it's nice." Elyse Seigel said she was "loving it." Sam Stein, a political reporter, walked past the bus with his bike. He said he had to get to Capitol Hill. A word to the wise: don't attempt to photograph him with his bicycle. He won't have it. Otherwise he's an amiable scribe. Meanwhile, back on the bus, Lamb told Froomkin he enjoyed HuffPost's "screaming red headlines." Froomkin replied, "You want to know the secret? Naked girls!" When Daily Caller Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson came on board, he hammed it up with Lamb and agreed to take the Legislative Quiz. What were the original White House bathtubs made of? Carlson guessed copper. Right answer: Tin. He answered most other questions correctly. Like Tapper, Carlson watched a C-SPAN appearance from yesteryear. "You looked like a child," Lamb told him looking at a bow-tied Carlson on TV. "That's a hangover, just so you know," said Carlson, whose skin did look pale in the segment in which he wore a candy red and white striped bow tie. Lamb told Carlson that if he was going to start appearing on FNC regularly, he should return to the bow tie. Carlson wholeheartedly dismissed the idea, saying wearing a bow tie to "brand" himself was annoying. Carlson cheered up after they handed him a pile of gray C-SPAN fleece jackets for him and his staff. He deadpanned, "I will wear it with pride or without pants." He walked off with the jackets bundled in his arms, saying, "We're going to have a fashion show upstairs. You can't imagine the kind of stuff staff is going to do in these." C-SPAN's Brian Lamb and Howard Mortman with bus in background. Read the conclusion and view more pictures after the jump... Early Tuesday morning, Politico's Mike Allen filed his Playbook from the bus, which then made the voyage to MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" to visit with co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd. The bus tour concluded today with a visit to National Journal's "The Hotline" and then was off to Capitol Hill to meet up with reporters from The Hill. The magnificent bus. Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson and Brian Lamb Lamb talks quietly with Carlson (L to R): Daily Caller's Jonathan Strong and Alex Pappas Daily Caller's Becca Glover Watkins aboard the bus. Brian Lamb and Daily Caller interns HuffPost interns escape the office to visit the bus.

Fishbowl

The Magical Mystery C-SPAN Bus Tour

Betsy Rothstein

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Betsy Rothstein