We are truly living in a technological wonderland. For cable news pundits, new technology also makes their jobs much easier. Now they can do a quick hit on “Morning Joe” before taking the kids to school, and then pop onto an afternoon news show before picking them up… all from across the country.
The Washington Post highlights one of the latest trends in punditry: the home studio. Figures as varied as Sarah Palin and David Gergen to the CNN power couple James Carville and Mary Matalin all have the deal.
In the Carville-Matalin house, CNN’s team of techies mounted a smallish camera — called a Cisco link — that gets steered and focused by engineers in D.C. or Atlanta or Hong Kong or whichever CNN nerve center has booked either half of the power couple.
Advertisement“This is an option that turns out to be cost-effective and also smart for the contributor and the network,” Feist said.
It’s also awesome, and “inexpressibly gratifying,” Matalin said in an e-mail. Then she found some words to express it: “For us personally, the system allows us to be available when CNN needs us without having to miss out on our kid’s many happenings.”