Background:
On
April 23rd my news director, Marybeth Jacoby, received an email from
NASA stating that the 3rd National Climate Assessment would be
released on Tuesday, May 6th.
She forwarded the email with a note “How can we make this BIG?” I started thinking about how I would
approach it.
I
received a call from the White House just after our 7 p.m. newscast on
Thursday, May 2nd. It was
Keith Maley, Regional Communications Director, and he was inviting me to the White
House for the release of the 3rd National Climate Assessment. I was being invited because of my work in
educating viewers about how climate change was already affecting their lives
and how it would impact them in the future.
WLTX-TV partnered with the Center for Climate Change Communication at
George Mason University and Climate Central to develop a program called Climate
Matters.
The
segments began airing in August 2010 and were highly focused topics used within
the weathercasts. Typically these segments
ran from 30 to 60 seconds not including anchor interaction.
I
was delighted to be able to accept their invitation. What an honor! As you can imagine there was a lot a planning
to do at the last minute. There was a
scramble to book flights and hotel for an event taking place on Tuesday, May 6th. I also responded to Marybeth’s email “It
doesn’t get much bigger than a presidential interview. Mission Accomplished!"
My
producer, Sharranda Neal, and I flew out of Columbia, SC, Monday morning and
arrived in Washington, D.C., mid-afternoon.
We hit the ground running trying to shoot stand-ups for the evening
shows and the morning show the next day.
There were a host of technical issues we had to overcome, but we managed
to get the job done.
We
returned to the hotel quite tired and prepared for the next day that we knew
would be hectic. We were not disappointed.
5:45 a.m.: OMG! It’s the alarm!
Stop that noise!!
I
rolled out of bed and got ready for the day.
About an hour later I called Sharranda and said that we needed to eat
breakfast before going to the White House.
I had received word that they would not be providing lunch, but that we
could bring our own. Not going to
happen. I knew we would be too busy for
that. We finished breakfast and we were
off to the White House. Fortunately we
left early in anticipation of the morning traffic.
8:20 a.m.: Arrived at the White House
Some
of the participants were already there, but I ran into Jeff Renner, KING-TV,
Seattle, WA, and John Morales, WTVJ-TV, Miami, FL, going through security. It was nice to run into old acquaintances. We
were met by Keith and others and escorted to the Press Briefing Room of the
White House. In my mind I felt like I
was reliving a scene from the television series West Wing.
Once
there I immediately recognized Janice Huff from WNBC, New York. Others began to arrive and soon everyone was
there. There were eight broadcast
meteorologists that were invited to the White House:
1.
Ginger Zee – “Good Morning America” (ABC)
2.
Megan Glaros – "This Morning" and Chicago, IL (CBS)
3.
Jim Gandy – Columbia, SC (CBS)
4.
Bill Martin – San Francisco, CA (FOX)
5.
Al Roker – “Today Show” (NBC)
6.
Janice Huff – New York, NY (NBC)
7.
John Morales – Miami, FL (NBC)
8.
Jeff Renner – Seattle, WA (NBC)
It
was great to see everyone.
 |
| From left to right: Jeff Brenner, Jim Gandy, Janice Huff, John Morales. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
9 a.m.: First Briefing
We
were escorted over to the Eisenhower Building for the first of three briefings
for the day. Here we met senior administration
officials. Each one presented
information about the findings in the assessment and how their agencies were
involved. It was a short summary, but enough
to get a sense of the enormity of the effort by the federal government.
 |
| First briefing of the day with administration officials. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
There
was an opportunity to ask questions, and I started the questions with Robert
Bonnie on the economic impact of climate change on forests and
agriculture. He said that there would be
impacts, but it was difficult to put a dollar figure on it. Supporting jobs to these industries would be
affected as well.
9:50 a.m.: Interviews
It
was time to move to the South Lawn of the White House for interviews with the
administration officials. As you can
imagine it was a tall order to get the interviews done in an hour when you have
eight broadcast meteorologists vying to get interviews.
 |
| Jim Gandy preparing for interviews. Image credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
My
first interview was with Robert Bonnie.
Forests and agriculture are big businesses in South Carolina and this
was great. I was able to follow up on my
question in the briefing. Turns out that
Mr. Bonnie was well aware of South Carolina and its forests. He had just spent some time in the Francis
Marion Forest. We talked about how
climate change would impact forests from heat, droughts, and disease. He also discussed how extreme heat and
intense rains would impact the agricultural community.
 |
| Interview with Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary at the US Department of Agriculture. The photographer is Danielle Gill, WUSA-TV. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
Next
I got a chance to interview the president’s science advisor, Dr. John
Holdren. He was very gracious to give me
such a long interview. The full
interview is available on the website at: http://www.wltx.com/story/weather/forecast/climate/2014/05/07/dr-john-holdren-jim-gandy-climate-change/8817753/
.
 |
| Interview with Dr. John Holdren, president's science advisor. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
Wait,
what’s this? Stop the presses. Enter Bo and Sunny. I could see the handler bringing the dogs
from the Rose Garden and you guessed it.
All interviews stopped. Everyone
(officials, mets, producers, and photogs) had to get their picture taken with
the dogs. What a nice diversion.
 |
| Me with Bo & Sunny. Image Credit: WLTX. |
My
final interview was with NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan. This agency includes the National Weather
Service, Ocean Service, Fisheries, and National Climatic Data Center. I was only able to get a couple of questions
in as time was running out. However, I
was able to ask her how this assessment differed from the previous assessment.
 |
| NOAA administrator, Dr. Kathryn Sullivan. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
11:10 a.m.: Second Briefing
We
were running a little late with the interviews so time was slipping for the
next briefing. This was with John
Podesta and Dr. John Holdren. It was an
overview of the assessment and how the administration plans to address climate
change. The strategy consists of three
parts: mitigation, adaptation & resilience, and international efforts.
Mitigation
involves efforts to reduce carbon emissions and a move to alternative
energy. Efforts are also underway to
help communities adapt to an already changing climate and become more resilient
to extreme weather. Finally the
administration wants to lead the international effort to reach agreement among
all countries to reduce carbon emissions.
No pictures were allowed here.
Sorry!
11:50 a.m.: Live Shot
I
had to leave the briefing early to make it to my live shot for the noon newscast
on WLTX. Arrangements had been made with
CBS to use their facility at the White House to do the live shot. Kudos to the CBS crew. They were super to work with and very
professional. The live shot looked great
and they made the job easy.
 |
| The noon live shot from the White House with Darci Strickland. Image Credit: Mary Soto,WLTX. |
12:10 p.m.: Down Time
The
second briefing was over and the live shot was done. Time for a break. Sharranda was down to less than 8% of battery
power left on her phone. All of the
other pieces of equipment had used considerable battery power, so it was time
to recharge. We had about 40 minutes to
take care of the technical side of television.
It also gave us a chance to push some items out on social media.
1 p.m.: NASA Comes Calling
The
White House had arranged to have Michael Freilich of NASA talk about some of
the programs at NASA aimed at studying the earth. There were 17 programs underway by the end of
2013 and 5 more will be launched this year.
Satellites have been able to determine that sea level rise has
accelerated in the past couple of decades.
 |
| NASA's presentation by Michael Freilich. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
1:40 p.m.: Preparing for the
President
This
time was spent relaxing and preparing for the interview. The White House provided a makeup artist to
help us look better for the interview.
Lord knows I needed it. Turns out
that the makeup artist had family in the Columbia area. So many connections between here and
Washington. Had a great time visiting
with her and talking about places in Columbia.
2:30 p.m.: Interviewing the
President
Everyone
moved to the Palm Room to get ready for the interviews of the President. Ginger Zee of ABC was the first to go. We would be escorted one at a time to be
introduced to the president and do the interview. Each one of us would get 3 minutes of the
president’s time. I was third in line to
talk to the president.
The
president was running late (imagine that).
The first interview was about 20 to 25 minutes late getting started, but
once they got going things seem to move smoothly. Then it was my turn to interview the
president. I was escorted and introduced
to the president. We exchanged
handshakes and the technicians made sure everything was a go.
Just
as I was about to start the sound technician said “Wait! Let’s let the plane go
by.” The White House is near Reagan
National Airport and a loud plane was taking off. As we patiently waited to for the noise to go
away I looked at the president and said “Mr. President, can’t you shutdown
National for about 30 minutes?” He could
tell I was joking so he thought a second and responded with “Probably, but I'm not going to try.” A little humor while we waited.
Soon
the noise was gone and I conducted the interview. NBC was the pool photographer for the
interviews and kudos to the crew. They
did a great job! The interview was
actually one of the easier things I did that day. You can see my interview with the president
along with the transcript at: http://www.wltx.com/story/weather/forecast/climate/2014/05/06/jim-gandy-interviews-president-obama-about-climate-change/8782163/
.
 |
|
President Barack Obama conducts a “Weather from the White House”
interview with Jim Gandy, Columbia-CBS, to discuss the findings in the third
U.S. National Climate Assessment, in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 6,
2014. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
|
3:30 p.m.: Stand ups for the
Newscasts
Sharranda
and I left to go shoot stand ups for each of the evening newscasts and the
morning show the following day. Our
photographer from WUSA-TV, Danielle Gill, had arranged for the shots to be down
at the CBS location as we did for the live shot. The CBS crew set everything up for us and
patiently helped us shoot our segments.
Our day was about done with all of the shows produced. It was time to pack up and go home.
It
had been a busy, fun, and exhausting day.
So much to do and prepare for. In
less than 24 hours I had done 10 stand ups, 4 interviews, 1 live shot, and a
1-on-1 interview with the president. In
addition, both Sharranda and I had been pushing things out on social media. We frequently sent tweets using the hastag
JimInDC. This was proposed by my wife,
Ann. There had also been three briefings
to attend.
The
White House staff had been most cooperative and helpful in many ways. Most importantly we never got lost (an easy
thing to do).
3:50 p.m.: Jim Has Left the
Building
It
was time to leave and head back to the hotel.
I was beat as I walked to the exit gate.
There was a satisfied feeling of accomplishment. This was only possible because of my crew
(producer, Sharranda Neal & photographer, Danielle Gill) along with CBS and
NBC.
 |
| Jim Gandy leaving the White House. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
3:55 p.m.: PANIC !!!!!!!
It
suddenly dawned on me that we did not have the interview with us as Sharranda
and I walked to get a taxi. What? Could all of this been for naught? We had been told by the White House that the
pooled crew would give us the tapes of the interview with the president. This did not happen.
I
remembered seeing an email from the pooled crew and asked Sharranda if she had
seen anything. I couldn’t get to my
email through my computer, but I had my iPad.
This gave me access and we were about to get the number for NBC to get
the interview. Turns out that the reason
that Sharranda did not get the email was because they had misspelled the email
address.
Everything
got worked out in about 40 minutes. NBC
fed the interview to CBS which in turn fed it to WLTX. This was a huge weight off our shoulders and
disaster was avoided. All of the stand
ups and interviews made it back to WLTX and we headed to the hotel and then to
the airport.
5:30 p.m.: Reagan National
Airport
We
arrived at the airport in time to check-in, go through security, and grab
dinner. We arrived at our departure gate
with almost an hour to spare. It was
only here that I was able to catch up on email and Twitter. Here I began to appreciate all that had gone
on during my visit. It was awesome!
 |
| Jim Gandy reflecting before boarding the flight to Columbia, SC. Image Credit: Sharranda Neal, WLTX. |
Finally
made it back to Columbia around 11:35 p.m. and in bed a couple of hours later.
