How to sound authoritative about anything. The two big lessons? Learn how to smile and interrupt.
J. PETER FREIRE is at school, learning to be a better pundit.
He is being trained to carve his conservative philosophy into bite-size nuggets — preferably ones that end with a zinger — and to avoid questions he doesn’t like. He is discovering the right way to attack opponents (with a smile) and to steer a conversation in his direction (by interrupting).
Journalists once had to achieve a certain gravitas before appearing on television as a political expert, but not anymore. Thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, a riveting presidential election and the proliferation of cable channels, people like Mr. Freire, who is 26 and has been managing editor of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, since January, are finding themselves in hot demand.
Tucker Carlson may have paved the way, becoming a host of “Crossfire” when barely over age 30. More-recent role models include Luke Russert, the 23-year-old son of the late Tim Russert, who was hired by NBC this summer to cover the youth vote, and Rachel Maddow, who is 35 and rose from nowhere to become a top-rated headliner on MSNBC.
But the transition from dorm-room debates to prime-time TV isn’t always easy, and that’s where pundit school comes in. Mr. Freire, whose résumé since graduating from Cornell includes a string of internships and short-term jobs, started making the television rounds — Fox News, MSNBC, C-Span, you name it — after he got his current job. Then came the embarrassing on-air moment when, by his account, a Fox News host baited him into calling for a boycott of The New York Times, where he had once been an editorial clerk. Mr. Freire, who had known for some time that he had room for improvement in his TV appearances, decided to seek professional media training.
This led him to the Leadership Institute, a conservative policy group in Arlington, Va., that has given courses in punditry to nearly 600 people this year, up from 461 in 2005. The institute offers various courses, from a $75 basic lecture to a $1,500 three-hour one-on-one session. The American Spectator paid to send Mr. Freire to the most advanced class.
And so he found himself on a recent Monday in a mock studio, watching a tape of a practice interview he had just done on privatizing Social Security, with several coaches critiquing his performance.
“That was great when J. P. said, ‘The question is, can you trust government?’ ” said Ian Ivey, the communications director at the Leadership Institute. “But then you need to follow up with a sound bite that you can expect to hear on ‘Hannity’ later.” (The reference was to “Hannity & Colmes,” the popular conservative talk show on Fox.)
Before the three-hour training session was over, Mr. Freire would learn what color jacket looks good on TV (charcoal gray), that the no-tie look popularized by Barack Obama is O.K. (“Conservatives are stuck in a white shirt, red tie, navy blue suit style,” one of his coaches observed), and how to get his message across no matter what he’s asked. (“You can transition by saying, ‘Look, I think the real issue is ...’ ”)
But his advisers also emphasized that most good pundits are born, not made.
“The purpose of television really comes down to whether the person is likable or not,” explained Beverly Hallberg, who worked with Mr. Freire at the institute.