Commander McBragg Saves the Daily Show
“There! Zanzibar! Did I ever tell you about the time I won the first Emmy for the Daily Show?” asked Commander McBragg.
“NO, Commander, but I…” Before Zanzibar could respond, the Commander continued.
“It was at the Republican National Convention in 2000….”
I loved that cartoon. McBragg once claimed he personally dug the Panama Canal. LOL
My story isn’t quite as grand, but it does include me helping the Daily Show win its first Emmy, at least my friends say I did. You can be the judge.
It was August, 2000. I was working with an edgy company in Philadelphia called Media Bureau Networks (MBN). I played a small part in getting the company off the ground, but the real credit went to my good friend Ben Barnett (@PoliticiansTV) and the whole Media Bureau team.
MBN was a streaming video company launched in the late 1990′s at the forefront of the tech burst in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia. Among its many projects, it live streamed over 1500 hours of music (acid jazz, hip-hop, jazz, drum & bass, etc.), talk shows, and other programming before the 2000 presidential nominating conventions.
Combining MBN’s broadcast record and my credentials as a political science professor, we first secured press credentials in Philadelphia and then leveraged those to get press credentials for the conventions. Our press access to the Republican Convention in Philly included space in the press pavilion for our broadcast studio, seats in the balcony throughout the convention, and a pair of floor passes for each segment of the convention.
On the first morning of the convention, the Daily Show held a press conference in the media pavilion (a large collection of tents outside of the First Union Center) to announce that Jon Stewart was running for America’s anchor. The event was hysterical. I managed to get into a funny back and forth with Jon during the Q&A session.
I also learned at this press conference that the Daily Show did not get any floor passes for the convention. They had been relegated to media pavilion oblivion. Too bad for them, but an opportunity for me and my Media Bureau colleagues.
After the press conference, we were able to do one-on-one interviews with Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I took this opportunity to offer my help to the Daily Show.
In this clip, you will hear the beginnings of my negotiations to provide the Daily Show with floor access to the convention:
Truth be told, I really wasn’t looking for anything in exchange. Stephen simply offered. 
The morning of Dick Cheney’s nomination acceptance speech, I was wandering the outer ring of the First Union Center with my camera crew. All of a sudden I found myself face-to-face with Daily Show correspondent Mo Rocca. We started chatting, first about his previous jobs (apparently he was an editor for a men’s magazine featuring all natural women… Rocca claims he got approval to take the job from his feminist friend… hmmm). Then the conversation turned to his lack of access to the interior section of the FU Center. I told Mo that we had balcony seats and invited him to join us up there.
At that point, we proceeded to the elevator, me with my cameraman, Mo with his. Once we got up to the balcony, Mo and his cameraman began shooting a bit with the floor of the convention center behind and below Mo. Meanwhile, we shot Mo and his cameraman as they shot their bit.
Then I conferred with my colleagues. We were exhausted from moving our studio down to the convention and all the excited from the previous two days. After a short discussion, I turned to Mo and asked him if he wanted our two floor passes for Cheney’s speech that evening.
Of course, Mo said “yes.”
And that, Zanzibar, is how Mo became the ONLY member of the Daily Show cast to make it to the floor of the 2000 Republic Convention. For those of you who remember watching that episode, Mo wandered the floor during the speech asking all sorts of silly questions to drunk conventioneers. Very funny.
Shortly after the convention, Mo published his reflections on the convention on Newsweek.com, where he thanks me for the floor passes.
2000 was the first year the Daily Show ran their Indecision 200X series and it was the first year they won an Emmy, largely for the excellent work they did covering the election that year.
So you decide. Did I play a small part in helping them win that first Emmy? I really don’t need the ego boost, the experience itself is one i will never forget.
PS Here is the one-on-one interview with Jon Stewart:
As soon as I break up the press conference video, I will post that here too. For now, it is too long for YouTube.
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
- Posted in: Digital Politics
