By BRIAN STELTER
February 8, 2009
Newsweek magazine earned online buzz last week for producing “The
District,” a spoof of an MTV reality show set in the
White House. The YouTube-ready video imagined Barack Obama’s
first week in office by borrowing the glittering yet banal
qualities of “The City.”
As it so happens, a decidedly less glamorous reality show
is actually being filmed on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
CNN.com is tracking two freshman congressmen for a weekly series
called “Freshman Year.” The two politicians are
producing most of the content themselves by carrying video
cameras on Capitol Hill and writing essays about their experiences.
Mike Toppo, the senior supervising producer for news production
at CNN.com, said his team looked for “articulate and
personable freshmen” with interesting biographies and
contrasting backgrounds. They found two from neighboring states:
Jared Polis, Democrat of Colorado, and Jason Chaffetz, Republican
of Utah.
“They’ve asked us to give insight into what it’s
like to be a freshman and what it’s like to be a congressman,” Mr.
Chaffetz said in a telephone interview.
In a statement, Mr. Polis added, “So much goes on behind
the scenes in Washington that doesn’t make it onto C-Span
and most people don’t get to see.”
The congressmen are using high-definition Flip cameras to
document their days. Mr. Chaffetz is sleeping on a cot in his
office to save money, and an aide filmed him as he unpacked
his bed one evening.
“The camera makes it doable,” Mr. Chaffetz said
of the project. “I can literally put it in my shirt pocket.” The
men do most of the filming themselves, adding an appealing
amateur quality to the segments, which will last 5 to 10 minutes
each on CNN.com.
The weekly series will continue for a year on the Web. (Portions
of the segments may also appear on TV.) In Mr. Polis’s
first essay, he said he had hosted eight guests for the inauguration,
been asked to join the rules committee, “and gotten lost
(repeatedly) in the labyrinthine passageways beneath the Capitol
and House office buildings.”
The men are also adjusting to the new title of congressman. “It’s
ridiculous to hear someone shout ‘Congressman’ and
watch each of the 435 members of Congress within earshot turn
their heads,” Mr. Polis wrote in his essay. “Seriously,
for my sanity, just call me Jared.” BRIAN STELTER
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