TVNewser TVNewser Jobs
 
Receive mediabistro.com's Daily TVNewser Feed via email


Daily Media Newsfeed Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Media Newsfeed via email.

Tuesday, Jul 15

How Greta Got Brett Favre to Go On the Record

favre_7-15.JPGFNC anchor Greta Van Susteren has had a busy past few days.

Van Susteren flew to Wisconsin Friday to interview Sen. John McCain, returning to Washington Saturday to host a special Tony Snow tribute show, then Sunday flew to Mississippi for an exclusive interview Monday with Green Bay Packer Brett Favre, and last night was back in DC anchoring On The Record.

"It's been great," Van Susteren tells TVNewser. "I love my work. It's not that hard, it's more sort of a question of whether you have the stamina. I'm lucky I have this job. This happened to be a busy weekend."

Van Susteren says the Favre interview came about Saturday night, as she was preparing for her show. At about 8pmET, an hour before she went on the air, an unrecognizable email entered her inbox. It turned out to be from Deanna Favre, Brett's wife.

"I called Deanna and she said Brett wants to talk and he believes Packer management is only giving out part of the story," Van Susteren says. "I said fine, I'll be there Monday and she said great. I was very busy concentrating on the [Tony Snow] special."

She adds: "I'd like to say I got the Favre interview because of dogged determination but it kind of fell in my lap."

Well, sort of. Van Susteren interviewed Brett in September 2006 and interviewed both Brett and Deanna Favre last September at Lambeau Field. Greta is a Cheesehead herself. "I'm a shareholder, I know a lot about Packer history, I grew up 20 minutes away from Lambeau Field," she said.

She's also conducted many sports interviews, including New York Giant wide receiver Plaxico Burress.

So, what does this shareholder want to see happen with the Pack?


greta_7-15.JPG"Either management makes a strategic decision and decides to trade him or they do the decent thing and cut him loose in recognition of what he's done for the franchise," says Van Susteren. "It's a family team — we can afford to be decent rather than strategic."

Van Susteren also talked about the loss, this weekend, to the Fox family: "Saturday morning I got the horrible email at 6am that we all got," she says. "I called up and said, 'Look, I love Tony, we all love Tony here.' In the make up room Tony was all the artists favorite. And the make up artists don't lie. So I wanted to do it for Tony."

Throughout the day, Van Susteren and her staff lined up guests from President George H.W. Bush to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, who "agreed to wake up at 3am in Germany for the phone interview."

Other guests included Washington managing editor Brit Hume and CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who matched up against Snow during a Battle of the Bands.

"It was all hands on deck, and everyone moved quickly," she says. "The reason was how much we all loved Tony. We had just gone through it with Tim Russert, but with some distance, since he was at NBC. But he was also one of these unique individuals because he was a good guy to everybody."

Van Susteren says the group who traveled with her to interview McCain on Friday and Favre on Monday is "pretty much a one man band," including one producer, Debi the Make Up Artist (who also helps book remotes, among other responsibilities) and a freelance crew hired at the locations. "We're very slim here, we don't have a big entourage. We travel all over the world with each other," she says. "We know the drill with each other and don't need a lot.

"Six and a half years ago, I joined Fox News Channel and the level of excitement about gathering news continues to be contagious — and that is how the interviews happen."

new on mediabistro.com

The Future of Social Media with Chris Anderson

The editor of Wired explains how to create a social network that works.
Watch the video

Email This Post

Fill out the following information and click on the Send button in order to send this post, How Greta Got Brett Favre to Go On the Record, to a friend.
Friend's name
Friend's email address
Your name
Your email address
Note to your friend (optional, max 200 Characters)

Read more on TVNewser >

Interested in advertising on TVNewser?

Our Blog Network

FishbowlNY

FishbowlDC

FishbowlLA

UnBeige

MobileContentToday

MobileMarketingToday

MobileDevicesToday

MobileAppsToday

AgencySpy

GalleyCat

PRNewser

TVNewser

TVNewser Staff

Editor:
Chris Ariens

Associate Editor:
Steve Krakauer

Contributors:
Gail Shister
Alissa Krinsky
Diane Clehane



Email

Twitter

About

Syndication

Anonymous Tips


  TVNewser twitter feed loading...

View twitter directly

Follow TVNewser via Twitter

TVNewser Photos


This is a Flickr badge showing public items from Mediabistro tagged with conventions. Make your own badge here.
All photos

Archives

December 2008

November 2008

October 2008

September 2008

more...


Links

Romenesko

Lost Remote

Inside Cable News

NewsBlues

FTVLive

TVNewsday

Broadcasting & Cable

TVWeek

Variety

TVSpy Watercooler

TV Barn

BuzzMachine

Newslab

Categories

09/11/06

2008 Conventions

A Year Of Katrina

ABC

About

About Us - Modules

Al Jazeera Intl

Awards & Accolades

BBC

Bird Flu

Bloomberg

CBS

CNBC

CNN

Couric Watch

Court Cases

CourtTV/truTV

Crystal Ball

Evening News Ratings

Exclusives That Aren't

FNC

Foreign Correspondence

Fox Biz

Fox News Radio

Funny

Generalities

HDNet

Hurricane '07

Hurricane '08

Iraq

Morning Cable Ratings

Morning Show Ratings

MSNBC

NAB-RTNDA 2005

NAB-RTNDA 2006

NAB-RTNDA 2008

NBC

Network Newsing

Now & Then

Obits

Olympics

Politics

Questions

Ratings

Site Announcements

State of the News Media 2005

State of the News Media 2006

State of the News Media 2007

State of the News Media 2008

Studies, Surveys & Research

Supreme Court

The Morning Show Wars

The Olympics

The Pope

The Revolving Door

The Ticker

Top Stories

Twitterview

WebNewser

Year in Review 2005

Year in Review 2006


Subscribe

Click here to receive the Daily Media News Feed by email.

Job Listings

Featured Listings

Media Planner
McCann Worldgroup
San Francisco, CA

Interactive Media Planner
McCann Worldgroup
San Francisco, CA

Entertainment Reporter-Fox News Radio
FOX News Radio
Los Angeles, CA

Associate Producer, Fox News Talk Radio
FOX News Radio
New York, NY


mediabistro.com l Member Benefits l Jobs l Freelance Marketplace l Courses l Events l Forums l Content
mediabistro Blogs: Media News l TVNewser l GalleyCat l UnBeige l FishbowlNY l FishbowlLA l FishbowlDC l mbToolbox l PRNewser l AgencySpy l UGCX
MobileAppsToday l MobileContentToday l MobileMarketingToday l MobileDevicesToday
Site Map l Advertising/Sponsorships l Partners l About Us l Contact Us/Help

JupiterOnlineMedia

internet.comearthweb.comDevx.commediabistro.comGraphics.com

Search:

Jupitermedia Corporation has two divisions: Jupiterimages and JupiterOnlineMedia

Jupitermedia Corporate Info


Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, & Permissions, Privacy Policy.

Web Hosting | Newsletters | Tech Jobs | Shopping | E-mail Offers