Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Man Behind The Presidential Debate Local Communications Specialist Helping Direct National Coverage Tonight

An Inland Northwest man will have one of the most important jobs of all at the presidential debate tonight: He’ll help decide what millions of viewers see on their TV screens.

Carl F. Benscheidt, 52, chief executive officer of a Spokane communications firm, is associate director of the debate telecast, which means he’ll be in the control room monitoring 11 cameras and sending out the video feed for all the networks and foreign broadcasts. He already is in San Diego aiming the cameras and tweaking the lights for tonight’s telecast.

One of his most important roles will be to keep the visuals impartial. For instance, if one candidate is given a “reaction shot” - smiling indulgently at some whopper his opponent has just told - Benscheidt’s job is to note what kind of shot it was and how long it lasted. Then he has to make sure the other candidate gets a similar reaction shot.

“Fairness is the big thing,” said Benscheidt, who lives in Hayden, Idaho. “It’s impossible to figure out in advance. It has to be worked out at the time.”

Benscheidt said this debate will be more complicated than the first (which he didn’t work) because of its town-hall format. In addition to nine cameras covering the angles on the floor, two cameras will loom overhead on cranes.

The Secret Service no doubt will be making sure those cameras don’t fall off and knock out a candidate. In fact, Benscheidt said, the Secret Service conducts numerous “sweeps” of the hall to check for any dangers.

Yet, Benscheidt said, the security overall is not as tight as it was at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, which he also worked. He said he had to make his way through three different metal detectors every day just to reach the control room.

Benscheidt landed both the debate and convention jobs through his connections as a former CBS producer-director. He was the West Coast producer-director of “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather” until 1988, when he quit, moved to Spokane and launched the Benscheidt Communications Group. He describes his company’s job as “crisis media management.”

He helps clients handle the media during highly visible public controversies. His clients have included Merck & Co., Nordstrom and Boeing Co. His company has six employees at its Spokane headquarters and six other consultants and employees in offices in Seattle and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Benscheidt still likes to contract out as a director for conventions, debates and other special news events. It’s his way of keeping his hand in the game.

“It’s very important to our clients to know that they are getting people who are real media people,” said Benscheidt.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo