brief post tonight.
jim's asked ava and c.i. to scrap the tv commentary they'd already done a rough draft on (and made time to watch the show and call friends working on and around the show). jim thinks a) that they really do amazing writing (ava and c.i.) under pressure and b) the issue needs to be addressed. (stephen colbert.)
i agree it needs to be addressed. this was prompted by counterspin's decision to air the speech with no critique of it (and the implied approval and rah-rah that has upset a number of people).
if it works out, it will probably be 1 of those 'great' moments. but if it doesn't ...
i blame counterspin. they need a women's desk. 1 that is vocal. if they had 1 and sought input from it, that nonsense wouldn't have been on the air today.
jim really didn't grasp that it was putting them both under pressure. dona made that very clear in the long conversation (they bailed on it, ava and c.i.). jim's right that the piece needs to be written and i understand why ava and c.i. are the best choices. it's their beat. they can get people on the phone who saw it live.
and before i wrote my thing on it, i talked to c.i. about it and there are points that c.i. can make that no 1 else is making.
go read wally's 'THIS JUST IN! WHICH RAT WILL BE THE LAST TO LEAVE?' - it's funny and made me laugh.
in fairness to jim, he was his usual energetic self. he gets really jazzed on an idea and doesn't notice that every 1 else isn't going 'awesome!' if ava and c.i. can do this (i think they can) with minimal damage to their weekend (i'm not so sure), it'll be worth reading and worth doing. but ay-yi-yi.
after ava and c.i. left the call (at the same time), betty said, 'well am i the only 1 who wants to cry right now?' it was only when that was said and the long conversations that followed that jim started to grasp he was being a little overbearing. he'll apologize tomorrow night (he's already said he will) and hopefully everything will be fine. by the end of the call, jim was feeling really bad. he's just enthusiastic. and others, including me, could have stepped in and should have. jim thought c.i. was joking but there was no joking on c.i.'s part or ava's. they've both had very long weeks and were hoping that since they made time to knock out most of the work for their review, they'd be able to relax and we'd have a simple session. now that's all been shot to hell.
if it had been approached differently (or broached differently), it wouldn't have gone the way it did. i think every 1 can agree it needs to be dealt with and that ava and c.i. have the following and the abilities to address it.
listening to counterspin today, i was really insulted that they chose to present the 'jokes' the way they did - with no critique of it. they need a strong women's desk and they need to put those sort of items past a woman's desk.
i'll stop here because i want to be sure i don't end up spilling some of the points c.i. made when we were on the phone earlier this week. but there are a number of problems with the 'jokes' and i think it will be tackled wonderfully this sunday.
