Open Writing

The, so called, “Dean” of American TV broadcast news, the late Walter Cronkite, for several years hosted a program titled “You Are There”. The program took notable events from history and reported them as if they were current, using modern techniques. The series was popular, so much so that it appears to have influenced modern TV news reportage.

Today, local TV stations in the US invest considerable amounts of money and energy to ensure that their viewers come as near to “living” the news as technology allows. So if you are of a mind, you can witness the deep distress of miner’s wives as they are told their husbands did not survive an accident, or the shocked faces of students as they file from their institution after a mass shooting.

Or, if that doesn’t stir your empathetic juices, there’s bound to be the aftermath of a car bomb to be viewed, or a grief stricken mother whose child has just been shot by a rival gang, or an almost lifeless body being pulled from an earthquake-flattened building. In these troubled times, there is no shortage of mawkish, melodramatic and tragic events to engage an ever more voyeuristic audience.

The disastrous oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico has all the elements of human and ecological tragedy that make up the TV news fodder of today. In April 2010, an oilrig in the Gulf exploded and caught fire, causing the death of 11 workers before sinking and severing the well pipe a mile below the surface. Almost before the fire-fighting boats arrived, we were getting pictures of the giant fireball that was consuming the rig, and the coverage has been constant in the weeks since then.

Hour by hour, viewers are been fed aerial shots of the spreading oil slick, alternating with live pictures of oil gushing from the fractured pipe, taken by robotic submarines. For light relief we are treated to interviews with worried holidaymakers on the Alabama and Louisiana beaches, and angry commercial fishermen who anticipate the destruction of their livelihood.

For added gravitas, officials from the Coastguard, the Department of the Environment , and politicians, have regularly been paraded in front of the cameras to pass judgment on the accident , the remedial effort, ,and the culpability of the Rig owners and British Petroleum. British Petroleum’s senior executives have faced interrogation and castigation in appearances before a Congressional Committee investigating the accident and the clean-up progress, or lack of, with every nuance of their discomfort recorded on camera for TV viewers. One or other of these men appears daily on TV to eat humble pie.

Thus far, efforts to stop or contain the flow of oil have been unsuccessful, and the slick is following a current that will carry it into the Gulf Stream. Predictions are that the Gulf Stream has the potential to carry the oil as far as Europe and the Arctic, and that the clean-up could take as long as ten years. Though some of the pristine beaches of the Gulf have yet to experience oil coming ashore, tourists are already in retreat, and 60,000 acres of fishing grounds are off limits.

No sane person would deny the enormity of this catastrophe, but I have to wonder what the intimate, instant, and blow-by-blow reporting contributes to either public awareness or a solution. Surely, it would suffice just to have an evening news anchor bring us up to date, accompanied by perhaps a still photograph or two.

The reporting style of four recent wars in Vietnam, The Pursian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, has been instrumental in establishing the “You are there,” style of TV news coverage. In the weeks before the Gulf war, amazingly, we were made privy to the US military build-up preparations and strategy, in frequent interviews with the commanding general, Norman Schwarzkopf, who clearly relished his media role in the spotlight. In the Iraq war, even more amazingly, we witnessed the firing of the first Cruise missile salvoes from the deck of a cruiser in the Persian Gulf, and, courtesy of CNN Nightly News and the acquiescence of the late Saddam Hussein, we witnessed the arrival of those same missiles in Baghdad.

In the Gulf war, coded “Desert Storm,” reporters with the right credentials were officially “embedded” with the troops for the first time. This had the dual effect of giving the military more control over the reporting, while also guaranteeing that the reporters would be where the action was taking place. In previous conflicts, the newsmen were literally freelance, and depended on their own persuasive abilities and connections to ensure they were in the right place at the right time.

If I harbored any hope that perhaps a jaded public might reject the current TV news reporting style, it has been dashed in recent times by the proliferation of YouTube, Twitter and the millions of cell phones that incorporate cameras. Now, TV news channels are exhorting their viewers who are on spot to send in pictures or video clips. What average citizen could resist the chance of getting the credit for a scoop on national TV?

In an address to cadets at the US, West Point Military Academy, US Civil War era General William Tecumseh Sherman declared “War Is hell.” Well, I think we all know that by now, but we will no doubt continue to be reminded by the news coverage. We also know that life can be hell, but do we need to be assured of that in High Definition TV, every waking hour?

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