Tuesday, January 04, 2005
A Late Start On Tsunami Story
Source: USA Today Below are quotes from several folks in the broadcast news industry on the response of covering the deadly tsunami's that struck over the Christmas holiday.
This is one of those stories nobody quite understood in the first couple of days exactly what this was going to be," says ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff, reporting Monday from Colombo, Sri Lanka. "The White House didn't understand it, journalists didn't understand it, and aid organizations didn't understand it.
The Asian tsunami is "one of those dauntingly horrible logistical stories to get to," making travel extremely difficult, says CBS News chief Marcy McGinnis. "There are better uses for an anchor than having him stand in the middle of rubble — with no disrespect to the people who are standing in the rubble," McGinnis says. Rather boarded the USS Abraham Lincoln as it traveled to the region and will report from it for 60 Minutes on Wednesday. He anchored The CBS Evening News from Thailand Monday.
CNN's Jonathan Klein says that with producers and correspondents already stationed around the globe, CNN was "able to flood the zone immediately" since last week and now has more than 75 staff members reporting the story. CNN has gone wall-to-wall on the disaster: "We plan to keep our foot on the accelerator — but be very sensitive to when enough is enough."
That probably will take some time, Fox News vice president John Stack says. "A story like this has different chapters every two or three days," such as the outpouring of relief from the U.S. government and its citizens.
# posted by ATN @ 12:25 AM 
