Thread by @jayrosen_nyu

I have a proposal. The All Media Daily Briefing, independent from the one there has been such controversy about.

Here is a short sketch. THREAD

What: A daily briefing on where we are in fighting the Covid-19 virus

When: Every day for the forseeable future, 4 to 5 pm ET... 1/

Where: On the internet. Streaming video and audio always. Broadast whenever a particpating channel or station decides to pick it up. All guests appear remotely. All questions asked remotely. 2/

Why: Same reason there needs to be a daily briefing at the White House, but this one is independent from the White House. It provides a stream of factual and relevant information from experts who can speak with authority, and people on the front lines in a position to know. 3/

Who: Originated by the "network pool," a consortium of ABC, CBS, NBC, FNC and CNN that already collaborates on big occasions like the State of the Union, and other events. Any other media company can subscribe for free, submit questions live, and carry the video or audio. 4/

How: 4-5 guests a day who have advanced knowledge or a vital perspective: public health experts, epidemiologists, scientists, hospital officials, governors. Journalists who are part of the AMDB can submit questions live. Anyone on the internet can send questions in advance. 5/

What are the minimum requirements to make this happen? A control room at one of the networks. A technical staff of 2-3 people. A unaligned moderator like Steve Scully of CSPAN. An executive producer. An editorial staff of 3-4 people to vet and book guests. 6/

What stands in the way? Well, the hard part is to reach an agreement among the networks and people whose shows compete. The rest could be up and running in a couple days.

How do you know that? I asked people with network television backgrounds. 7/

Is this supposed to replace the daily White House briefing? No. It is a parallel institution.

Is it supposed to compete with the White House briefing? All information competes with all other information these days. 8/

What's your agenda? To build a daily audience for independent, evidence-based updates and to inject more quality, real time information into the news system during a public emergency of unprecedented scale. 9/

Why would the big media companies collaborate on this, since they've never managed to do that before? Well, they have never faced anything like this. And the five big networks have collaborated before. A vehicle for doing so already exists. It's called the network pool. 10/

How do we convince them? We appeal to their public service mandate, and to their instinct for cross-partisan truth. It's a chance to show Americans that The Media can come together with one daily news update for everyone of every political stripe because the times require it. 11/

Why is Fox News on the list? Like CNN, Fox is part of the network pool.

Why is CNN a part of it? Like Fox, CNN is part of the network pool.

Why is MSNBC included? Like Fox and CNN, NBC is part of the pool, which is the most likely consortium to tackle something like this. 12/

Here's my sketch as a blog post. I will add to the FAQ as questions are raised. You can also comment there. pressthink.org/2020/03/the-al… 13/