Cokie Roberts, Dan Kloeffler and I had a discussion on ABC News.com today about the subject of First Lady Michelle Obama and her 50th birthday. In the course of our talk I said I give her a high approval rating - as First Lady, and as a mother and wife. Also, she's been good to DC schools and students. The clip is about 12 minutes long and I hope you'll watch. Dan was the host in New York. Cokie and I were at the ABC News bureau downtown.
GETTING MADE CAMERA READY @ ABC NEWS. COKIE ROBERTS ON THE RIGHT.
A little behind the scenes. Live television comes in all forms. The best form is when you are actually sitting with other people, making eye contact. Like real life conversation, but in a studio before cameras. The other kind is being alone in a studio, staring into a camera, talking with people you don't see. In that mode sometimes there is a camera operator and the camera or sometimes you are alone with the camera. Anything goes wrong, you're on your own. It's part of the fun. Today there was a camera operator with me. Nothing went wrong.
SITTING IN MY ROOM, TALKING INTO THE CAMERA TO DAN IN NEW YORK AND COKIE IN ANOTHER ROOM
Before today's interview at the ABC News bureau, Cokie and I sat together in the make-up room and caught up -- we've known each other since 1980-something -- then went to separate rooms to talk to each other on live TV. A little bit disconcerting to me was that the camera reflected back at me my own face. In my eyes, I was talking to me. This is not what happens in most of these kinds of interviews. I'm nonplussed about talking into a camera, but talking into my own face is something else altogether. Disconcerting. I kept looking away. Wouldn't you?
But that didn't change the content ... one bit.
Emmy-winning CBS News producer, talk show guest wrangler, published author, host of The Q&A Cafe, print & digital journalist, filmmaker, photog, and former saloon owner. 
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