Brian Lehrer puts on a great TV show

I was on Brian Lehrer's talk show on cuny.tv (as in the City University of New York) last night, discussing the economy and the presidential race with Vikas Bajaj of the NYT. Sorry for not giving advance notice, but I sort of figured that it's only available on cable TV in NYC, and most Curious Capitalist readers (or at least most Curious Capitalist commenters) appear to live elsewhere. And besides, I thought, do you really want to see me on TV?

That was the wrong way to look at it. The show also streams live online (there will be repeats Saturday at 10 a.m. EST and Sunday at 11, and eventually you'll be able to get an on-demand version here). It's aimed at a national audience. And it's really good.

Not the part with me and Vikas so much. I mean, I think we did fine, but I didn't watch us. I did watch the rest before we went on, though (we were last), and was kinda stunned at how entertaining it was. I was familiar with Lehrer, a New York mid-morning radio institution--although not that familiar, since I'm not usually listening to radio in the middle of the morning. But I sort of assumed that the show would be similar to the one other cuny.tv program I ever appeared on, something called U$A Inc.: wonderfully high-minded but not what you'd call must-see TV.

It isn't like that at all, though. Lehrer and his production team (some CUNY students, some grizzled vets) have assembled a real live TV show, with cool visuals, quick cuts from one subject to the next, and all the other standard tricks for keeping audiences engaged, without yelling or screaming or dumbing down the actual subject matter. I don't want to go overboard here--it was mostly just a bunch of white guys talking about politics. But it was far more entertaining than the last News Hour with Jim Lehrer I watched (which would have been sometime last summer, I think). And another thing: The lighting was such that guests didn't have to put on makeup, yet didn't look like shiny washed-out freaks on screen. Maybe serious TV journalism has a future, after all!

It is a non-profit, presumably low-paying future. But at least it's something.