The Daily: Two Debates Down. Ten to Go.

2019年8月2日星期五

The Daily: Two Debates Down. Ten to Go.

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Friday, August 2, 2019

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How do you fit 20 candidates into a 20-minute episode?Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

By Michael Barbaro
@mikiebarb

For the second set of Democratic debates, we knew we wanted to do something different. We had covered the first round — back-to-back debates featuring 20 candidates — in a single episode featuring Alex Burns that analyzed the meaning of what had happened onstage.

But as we looked ahead to the next 11 debates, we realized that experimentation was in order. Was there a different way to cover these? What could we say each morning that would not have been said elsewhere, over and over, the night before?

Our producer Andy Mills had an idea. The debates were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. What if we waited until Friday's show to weigh in, not necessarily on the big moments of the debates, but on their overall format and structure and the logic behind them? We were intrigued.

Andy brainstormed with Reid Epstein, a campaign reporter who has covered presidential politics for years. The two discussed the history of debates and what made this year's so different. The story Reid told, about the Democratic National Committee's decision to create new qualifications for the debates and the consequences of that move, suggested Andy's intuition had been right. There was a story here — and it was bigger than we thought: The D.N.C.'s new rules had generated unexpected and unprecedented changes to the campaign itself.

That spark eventually became the spine of Friday's episode, which Andy outlined on a whiteboard Wednesday morning with executive producer Lisa Tobin. (More on that process below.)

We briefly summarized the debates at the end of our Wednesday and Thursday episodes, using highlights from the night before. Then we put those moments into a much larger context in Friday's show.

We're eager to hear what you thought of the approach. After all, we have 10 more Democratic debates to go.

Talk to Michael on Twitter: @mikiebarb.

Secret episode ingredient: hot sauce

Producer Andy Mills in his natural habitat — batting around ideas with the audio team's executive producer, Lisa Tobin, over lunch, with a side of Cholula.Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

Andy Mills on what's happening in this photo (and his fondness for whiteboards):

"Of all the things I love about my job, perhaps my favorite thing is brainstorming with my brilliant colleagues. I love the sound of ideas being thrown around as the marker squeaks and scribbles on the whiteboard. I love the way that order begins to emerge from the chaos. I love the electric charge of discovering something truly surprising in a story that seemed tame and dutiful. I love the moment when we find that inside an important issue we want to cover, there's a plot! Inside a concept, a structure! This photo captures one of those moments as we were figuring out Friday's episode."

Making the interest rate ... interesting

Ben Casselman giving the world's first live play-by-play of a Federal Reserve news conference. Watching from the studio: Brad Fisher, Clare Toeniskoetter and Jazmín Aguilera.Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

Producer Clare Toeniskoetter on the opening of Thursday's show:

"As Michael pointed out on Twitter, interest rates may be the single most boring subject on earth (a claim not everyone endorses). We talked through how to liven up the topic and landed on using the Federal Reserve's news conference on Wednesday afternoon. The pros? It's a live event, and we can use the audio! The cons? It's still about interest rates.

"We decided to try something new. We would watch the news conference in the studio with a colleague, economics reporter Ben Casselman, who could help Michael unpack the news in real time — kind of like two sports commentators, but with one (Michael) who doesn't know the rules."

On 'The Daily' this week

Monday: We asked Eric Holder, President Obama's attorney general, about his plans to fight partisan gerrymandering — and why he says his efforts will benefit not only Democrats.

Tuesday: A risky software system on the Boeing 737 Max jet was implicated in two deadly crashes in five months. Why did federal regulators deem it safe to fly?

Wednesday: Alex Burns on Senator Kamala Harris's presidential run: "A lot of Democratic voters I talked to still feel like they don't totally have their arms around what the vision is supposed to be."

Thursday: The economy is in a historic boom. So why is the Fed acting as if it's not? Ben Casselman explains.

Friday: If you thought this week's Democratic debates felt like reality TV, you're not alone. Reid Epstein unpacks the consequences of new debate rules in the era of cable news.