With cameras and cellphones banned from the Miami courthouse where former President Donald Trump was arraigned on 37 charges from the Dept. of Justice Tuesday, CNN formulated an elaborate plan to beat its competition in gathering news updates in real time.
The network hired a group of local Miami-area high school students to work as production assistants for the day. The students attended the hearing on Tuesday afternoon in an overflow room with CNN reporters, who made notes and then handed the notes to a student who then rushed to one of the courthouse’s only two payphones to pass the updates along to the network.
However, because the payphones were only configured to call local phone numbers, CNN had the student dial their personal cellphone located in the network’s mobile operations in an RV, where it was answered by a CNN news director who would then transcribe the notes and pass it along to the network HQ for air.
Their efforts allowed CNN to scoop other news outlets by reporting when the former President was in custody and entered a not guilty plea.
“In all my years of field producing, never have I been involved in an operation as complex as this literal game of professional telephone,” Gray said after the hearing concluded.
