Across the country, television studios sit mostly empty as news anchors and reporters broadcast from home, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a shift in setting that led to the creation of the viral Twitter account called, "Room Rater."
Run by Claude Taylor and his girlfriend, Jessie Bahrey, the account is devoted to critiquing not the news coverage, but the rooms the content is delivered from.
Taylor told Jim Braude on WGBH News’ Greater Boston Tuesday that they both came up with the idea on a whim.
“We just started tweeting what everyone else was already doing. We were making comments about people’s backgrounds, and we just said, 'Let’s make an account,'” Taylor said.
For example, Dr. Anthony Fauci received a perfect 10 out of 10 with the so-called "room we need." But Lady Gaga received just two points for the placement of her lamp.
Taylor said the best rooms have something many people don’t usually achieve with their backgrounds: depth.
“The good rooms — the better rooms — have depth. You start at the presenter and you move backward so you can see the art on the walls or maybe a bookcase on the end,” he said.
Taylor also remarked that people often receive lower ratings because of the book placement on their bookshelves.
“One has to be very careful to avoid staging. In this category, if we see a bookcase with color-coded books … that’s an automatic 3-point deduction," he added. "Maybe that person has read the books — maybe, but that is not a working person's library."
Taylor said for those who have written books, only one copy should be on display in their background for promotional purposes.
“It’s expected. If you’re an author, you published a book — you got it published, you get to show one book. You show two books? It’s an automatic three-point deduction,” he said.
