Laura Ling, Euna Lee and Bill Clinton: Welcome Home to the TV Feeding Frenzy

Pity the poor bookers. In the TV world, bookers are the desperate souls sent by unreasonably demanding producers to engage in the cutthroat competition for primo guests on news or talk shows. In this case, they're prima: Laura Ling and Euna Lee.




Now that the two American journalists have been pried from their future of North Korean hard labor, the next tough job will be fending off all the shows that want them first.

It's not uncommon for the aforementioned bookers to try crying or begging. They will often sob something like, "If I don't get you, I'll lose my job." (By the way, they say that because their nasty bosses have told them so.)

Normally, there's a pecking order: "60 Minutes" or maybe "Oprah Winfrey" start with a slight advantage, simply because of their huge audiences. "Oprah" probably has the edge in this knife fight, because of bloodlines: Laura Ling is the sister of Lisa Ling, who's a regular on the show.

Laura and Lisa, remember them? They have probably already hired a public relations person who makes a great living maneuvering through these treacherous waters. These PR specialists know that the morning shows are also in the hunt.

They can expect "Today" and "GMA" to come a-calling, with "The Early Show" on CBS struggling to catch up (in more ways than one). Lagging way behind, viewer-wise, are the cable shows. More often than not, "Larry King Live" gets sloppy seconds, although his program may get special treatment here because it was the venue for Ling's family to go public with her plight in May.

After King, it's not unusual for the other shows within each cable network to battle each other for whatever news value the guests have left.

This is an unusual case: Ling and Lee worked for Current TV, the youth news outlet. So Current may be their first stop. Co-founders Al Gore (yes that Al Gore) and Joel Hyatt released a statement saying they were "overjoyed" at the journalists' release. (Disclosure: Gore and I have gone to some of the same social gatherings; Hyatt is a longtime personal friend.)

We haven't even gotten to former President Clinton yet. He's a hot property again. Advantage: "60 Minutes." They have a history. Don't expect him to appear with Hillary, though. That was sooooo 1992. This is now. Too bad. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton acknowledges a central role in this.

Once we get past the scramble for television bragging rights, there might still be some room for serious thinking about the significance of this.

First though: Is it me or does that picture of an unsmiling Clinton and Kim Jong-Il posing together look like a 21st-century version of Grant Wood's "American Gothic"?

While Bill Clinton's involvement in all this was not officially official, he is a former president. That's gotta mean something. Furthermore, his entourage included several people with semi-connections to the Obama administration.

It is possible that both sides took advantage of this situation to cool down the dangerous anger that had come to define U.S.-North Korea relations. Does this clear a path toward some sort of bilateral dealmaking?

Don't expect President Obama to invite Kim Jong-Il to the White House for a beer anytime soon, particularly since Kim is known to prefer sipping a fine wine -- while his country starves. But discreet moves away from the nuclear brink may be a logical next step.

The immediate attention is on Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They and their families are obviously thrilled they're home, even if they return to the booker buzz saw.