Screengrab via Video
Video has been a large part of CNN Politics Digital’s DNA. Series like Hambycast, Being Moody, and MeaveWest have utilized some of the many CNN Politics Digital reporters.
Now with the upcoming Republican presidential debate on December 15, CNN Politics Digital made a short video featuring debate moderator Wolf Blitzer. The video, titled “The Littlest Situation Room,” features Blitzer and correspondent Tom Foreman doing The Situation Room in an elevator, complete with a desk for Blitzer’s papers. At one point, the show goes to commercial break and the two stand silently in the elevator. Even as others step into the elevator, the two continue their program.
The premise is played for laughs with Blitzer the ever-serious newsman. Blitzer does transition in terms of self-awareness. At one moment, he is discussing the ramifications of the upcoming debate just like he would on his program. The next, he is teeing up an interview with the maintenance men.
On Facebook, the video has garnered over 12,000 views.
A CNN spokesperson told TKNN that the video was intended to be light-hearted with the debate approaching. When asked if there will be more digital videos with television personalities, the spokesperson pointed to two already existing series. Chief Medical Correspondent and host Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts Live to 100 while Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto hosts The Brief.
In December of 2014, Vice President of CNN Politics and Money, Ed O’Keefe, told Politico Media (then known as Capital New York) that they were looking at online opportunities for “Jim Sciutto, Elise Labott and Dana Bash, Gloria Borger, Jake Tapper, John King and Wolf Blitzer, we can do things with all of these people if we can encapsulate a product that has a really distinct differentiated perspective.” He also said, “We will find something that they can each contribute to, in addition to all the written text they are doing.” O’Keefe also recounted a meeting at CNN’s D.C. bureau about the plans for CNN’s digital future. A meeting that Blitzer, among other correspondents and anchors, attended.