Jennifer Palmieri was rushing through the Atlanta airport the other day on her way down to Laredo, Texas, when she paused to make an observation. “I mean, the world comes through here,” she said, speaking by phone. “Why wouldn’t you try to understand?”Palmieri is in the process of helping us do just that. The former White House director of communications under Barack Obama as well as the head of comms for Hillary Clinton in 2016 has undertaken an ambitious goal: to help TV viewers get at the nuances of the political South.
She and Pod Save America-company Crooked Media are producing a six-part documentary TV series called Long Play, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The show aims to uncover fundamental issues and profound shifts in a way daily news coverage doesn’t. Palmieri has brought along former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and veteran journalist and The 19theditor-at-large Errin Haines as co-hosts, each bringing their experience to bear on the nonfiction show.
Crooked Media, co-founded by former Obama speechwriter and Palmieri colleague Jon Favreau, will executive produce the show, as will Favreau; they’ll help market and distribute it. Long Play will also live on YouTube.
