From 2-4 p.m. every weekday, Brooke Baldwin is the captain of CNN.
As the solo anchor of the afternoon edition of “CNN Newsroom,” she charts the course for the topics discussed and the guests who flow through her fast-paced two-hour show.
Baldwin’s spare desk-and-chair set sits in the center of an expansive newsroom on the fifth floor of Time Warner Center in Manhattan. She’s surrounded by dozens of reporters, producers, editors, researchers, and technicians clackity-clacking away on computers. CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker’s office is just steps away. Baldwin’s colleagues make no particular effort to keep quiet while she’s on the air. The ambient noise of journalists at work is part of the “CNN Newsroom” soundtrack.
Baldwin also is knee-deep in the hunt for stories. She spends the first part of her day working with exec producer Eric Hall to assemble a solid lineup of “Newsroom” segments. She researches and takes copious notes on a host of the morning’s timely subjects and headlines. More often than not, most of the advance planning goes out the window because of news that breaks while she’s on the air. Which is just fine by the captain.
“It’s a crazy thing to hold down two hours of live television every day,” Baldwin says. “You’re flying down this highway with objects being thrown at you and obstacles in the way. It’s a matter of getting through those two hours and telling stories in an appropriate way to really make [viewers] feel and think and be smarter and more engaged.”
Read more at Variety.