Emotional era for American TV news anchors
By Kenneth Killebrew Posted Sat, Dec 1 2001
In the 1998 photo above, Tom Brokaw of NBC, left, Dan Rather of CBS, center, and Peter Jennings of ABC chat before a news conference.—Rchard Drew/ AP
There is something surreal about evaluating the actions of the men and women who are telling Americans of the ongoing tragedy in their midst. Television news anchors in the United States have found that they are dealing not with a foreign issue or an event thousands of miles away in covering the new war against terrorism. This horror unfolded in their own backyards, at their doorsteps and in their own newsrooms. They did well although they had to fight their fears and anger at work, which is to say on the air in front of tens of millions of viewers.
It was a telling time. And it appears the end is not yet in sight.
In the first few weeks following the attack that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a part of the Pentagon, America's television anchors and journalists remained calm, poised and though a bit overwhelmed at what they had seen, solid pillars for the public.
In the United States, the role of the television anchor generally has been one of quiet informer. Historians report that Walter Cronkite was the first to be named “anchorman.”
Apparently during the presidential convention coverage of 1952, CBS needed a term for Cronkite's role as the leading newsperson at the conventions. The term anchorman was born, and television news never looked back. In many ways, Cronkite's calm and fatherly demeanor set the original standard.
But successors have not been so fortunate. When Dan Rather's live interview with then President George Bush became explosive during the presidential campaign of 1992, it was Rather who came off as rattled and unnerved. But such cases have been rare.
When Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and others discussed the major events, disasters and tragedies in the United States, there was calm. When they reported that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, there was calm even through tears. While sadness was apparent, the overall resolve was to communicate that the nation, though wounded, would go on.
In major stories, this has been the typical history of the U.S. broadcaster. While some local television news anchors adopted a “how dare they” approach to the rest of the world, the networks have generally handled major difficulties more reasonably.
But the events of September and October may have forged a new era in how television anchors behave at the national level. Rarely have television news anchors been put to the test in such severe circumstances. Of the major networks, all but NBC stuck with their primary news anchors from the first morning flight into the Trade Center until the late afternoon.
Early on, the calm resolve stayed with them. Dan Rather even qualified the collapse of the first of the twin towers by saying it “appears” that part of the tower has collapsed. He was saying that even as the television image was showing the collapsing structure. New York is the headquarters for all major news organizations in the United States except CNN, which while originating from Atlanta, Georgia, still has a major presence in the city.
As the day wore on, Judy Woodruff of CNN became harsh in her questioning of federal officials as she tried to make sense of the now clichéd term “senseless act.” Her drifting toward the personal soon disappeared, and her erstwhile professional face reappeared. Probably there were discussions about her on-air demeanor during off-air breaks.
As America named Osama bin Laden criminal number one and went after his al Qaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan, the news returned to a leavened tone. After all, despite the warnings of President Bush that this would be a long and “different” war, the early phases looked much like Desert Storm and the United State's incursion into the Middle East to liberate Kuwait. But within days, phase two of terrorism a la domestique would waft into town on the winds of anthrax.
The microscopic anthrax spore raised the same alarm as speeding passenger jets crashing into tall buildings and the heart of the military-industrial complex. News anchors were at the center of the coverage of all aspects of the story. They had to develop expertise in the politics of the war on terrorism, the geography of Afghanistan and the types of microbes that could cause inhaled or cutaneous anthrax.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States issued its first anthrax advisory regarding a Florida tabloid editor on October 4. Soon after, anthrax began popping up at the major networks and on Capitol Hill. The anchors may have been outraged at the original terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th. Now ,with the spores pouring out of envelopes carried through the United States postal service to their office, that sense of outrage could not be contained.Tom Brokaw of NBC told “Dateline” that he was upset and angry. CBS's Dan Rather nearly broke down on the David Letterman's Show. They showed that human instincts could even affect journalistic strength when the going gets tough. Peter Jennings of ABC managed to escape such an episode. He remained cool throughout his ordeal.
From the time of the discovery of the first anthrax cases in Florida in early October until the end of October, only 15 cases had been confirmed with another four cases suspected by the CDC. Five people had died as of early December.. Another 25 or so suspected cases were under watch in New York, New Jersey and Washington D.C. While dozens of other people tested positive for exposure to anthrax, the number of actual cases remained steady. No other new cases had been discovered in Florida.
All of this the anchors had to report in a way that informed but did not cause undue anxiety among their viewers. They and their organizations as well as the government ran into trouble with their reporting when it became clear that the possibilities for spread of the disease were taken more seriously in the halls of Congress, the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court and perhaps the offices of the news business than in workaday places like post office facilities.
Strangely an element of macho crept into how celebrities were reacting to the anthrax scare. Sen. Tom Daschle. the majority leader, received one of the first letters, and as a result, his office was contaminated. His employees were given preventative antibiotics. He refused to take the drug. Dan Rather on Oct. 23 said that he would forgo any tests for anthrax exposure and wouldn't take antibiotics to protect himself.
“We're not going to run scared, and we're not going to work scared,” Rather told Associated Press. Some have called his actions courageous. History will write whether he was courageous or simply imprudent.
Sixty days after the first attacks, an element of normalcy had returned to the anchor desks. But there was a brief scare when an American Airlines jet with 255 passengers on board crashed into New York's Borough of Queens. The anchors were back on the job in minutes after the first reports. Rather, Brokaw and Jennings, already back at their earlier routines, came to their studios again. They were journalistic firefighters and they had to be there. But only briefly. By nightfall of Nov. 12, they were again back to normal.
The storm that touched American soil Sept. 11 has abated but not disappeared. Regardless of how the television anchors posture themselves, America will be different in the future. The people will watch their news anchors, waiting to see how calmly they report the next salvo.