From Murrow's Boys to One Man Bands: War Reporting at CBS
I saw the news item like most of you probably did: CBS News Hires Digital Journalist to be Based in Afghanistan. Yup.
CBS' Mandy Clark
Who says the networks are shying away from covering highly important yet massively dangerous overseas stories? Not CBS, snatching up former Voice of America VJ Mandy Clark, handing her a camera and a laptop (and hopefully battle armor) and sending her off into the poppy fields to see what the Taliban and al Qaeda are up to.
Maybe you had the reaction I did: seriously?
CBS News Senior Vice President Paul Friedman said in a release on the hire: “Mandy is intrepid and her wealth of experience reporting from the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere and her adroit use of technology, make her a terrific addition.” Hmm. If you've read CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier's gripping book about the Iraqi bombing that took the life of her two-man crew and nearly killed her, you know that in a war zone, even the most routine walk and talks surrounded by the toughest, heavily armed American soldiers is sometimes no guarantee you'll live to file your story. Dozier and her crew debated the safety of every assignment and argued pros and cons. Dozier's in-country producer was a key player in raising alarm bells when the crew didn't report in as expected, ultimately involving CBS brass in New York immediately and leading to Dozier's air evacuation to a hospital where doctors are credited with saving her life.
CBS' Kimberly Dozier After Bombing
It makes me think about the levels of protection a one-man-band doesn't have in a place like Afghanistan--even something as simple as a second (or third) set of eyes to watch the horizon for a fast-approaching Toyota in the sand while shooting video of something the Taliban might prefer not make air on Katie Couric's newscast.
Clark's come close already. In a recent assignment, she described getting caught in a firefight: "Then an explosion of sound. Gunfire was coming from everywhere, all at once. I lay my back against an alcove of rocks. A soldier was right in front of me firing at the surrounding hills. I pointed my camera but had to turn my head away because my skin was being pelted by his spent bullet casings. There were commands and curses flying all around, along with the bullets and rockets. I remember trying to just focus on what I was filming. I knew this was an important story and I wanted to tell it right, to get the pictures just right. If my shots were too sloppy, they wouldn't bring the viewer to the battle."
I don't know Mandy Clark, and have only seen one of her stories on CBS. But I wonder how fast a decision like this--so high profile--will filter down to local stations already looking to expand their fleets of "digital journalists." Hey, why not send a solo photographer off to Iraq? It's been done, right? How about maximizing our hurricane or tornado coverage? Drive yourself into the worst of the storm, get what you can and hey, don't forget to shoot a standup. And be careful! You know your safety is more important to us than any story.
Another War, Another World: CBS' Murrow in London, 1944
Murrow and his boys demonstrated the unique power of war reporting to captivate listeners and viewers. "This... is London" still resonates with Americans who can remember hearing it. All war reporting is dangerous. But going it alone?
Why do I feel so uncomfortable?
Small Crew, Big Danger
It's no leap to see that the arrests of Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea have a lesson for the legions of backpack journalists covering local news stories across the country. One-man (or woman) bands are cheaper, and for the journalist, clearly more dangerous when things go bad.
For Lee and Ling, reporting for Current TV, little is known about the exact structure of their support system. We do know that Current does not have the around-the-world network of bureaus that can jump into action and get phones ringing in New York, London, and Washington when a crew fails to report in.
CBS' Kimberly Dozier in Iraq
When CBS' Kimbery Dozier and her crew came under attack in Iraq, it was their bureau chief who started sounding the alarms, and it was the intervention of powerful CBS brass in New York who were able to arrange evacuation and treatment for the critically injured Dozier. [Note: If you haven't read Dozier's book on the attack, the loss of her crew, and her struggle to survive, pick up a copy. It's called "Breathing the Fire," and it's a courageous book]
The freelancer working for an internet news operation, even one with a high profile name attached like Al Gore, just doesn't have that kind of backup available.
And neither does the local news reporter who goes it alone. I can recall several times in my reporting when a photographer and I got into a sketchy situation, and we needed each other. Once, in Birmingham, my photographer was targeted by an angry police officer after the shooting death of a cop. The officer was upset, and vented on us. He picked a fight with my photog over where he'd been standing, and then pulled out his handcuffs. Knowing he'd done nothing wrong, the photog handed me the camera and told me to get it all on tape. You can't do that when you're alone.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5nLVyiBbU4&feature=player_embedded]
News directors love one-man-bands, and eager journalists are taking the jobs. There may, at times, be managers who think, "we shouldn't send a backpacker into that situation alone." But I'm sure it will happen anyway. Maybe you saw the YouTube clip of the one-man-band reporter doing his own liveshot who got caught in a gas station's sprinkler system. That was amusing. But that shot showed how often things go wrong in the field--and how hard it can be for a person doing it all him or herself to get out of harm's way, even if this time it was just a soaking.
How Far Would You Go to Live Your TV Dream? Dispatch from the Frontlines: Brian Andrews
Brian Andrews: Deciding to Walk Away. Walking Far, Far Away.
As the longtime lead reporter at WSVN in Miami, and later as a correspondent at CBS News and WFOR in Miami, Brian Andrews always seemed to out-hustle the competition and break stories that the other guys missed. He was the guy you knew was going places, as they say. I remember seeing Brian one day in my newsroom in New York and thinking, "this is the guy we need--he'll be big in New York." But Brian had other plans.
As you're about to read, Brian took a bold leap that left many in Miami scratching their heads: why walk away from something you're so good at? And to leave the country? Well Brian's now forging a new path in a new place, and serving as an example for those of us who are thinking: what next? If you've had a crazy dream, this, kids, might be the time to give it a shot. (And the way to take a dream and make it reality? Use those reporter's talents that allowed you to talk your way in for the exclusive interview--and use them to talk your way into a job that, like Brian, maybe nobody'd even planned for.)
DISPATCH FROM THE FRONTLINES -- Brian Andrews, News Director, RCN in English, Columbia
In December of 2007, I quit my job in Miami TV, sold my house, gave away everything I owned, and moved to Colombia to follow my dream of doing news in English in Latin America. I got out before the collapse of local news. I was lucky. I feel like I was able to leave at the top, on my own terms. I left a month into a new 3 year contract for big money. CBS didn't understand my reasons. They thought I was crazy. But, they knew my heart was in Colombia, not Miami, and were kind enough to let me go pursue my passions.
Once I got here, it took me about 6 months to get established, but I made it happen. I pitched RCN, the largest TV network in the country on my idea. They loved it. A few months later, Colombia's News in English was born. At first, it was just me and a producer. We did everything. We translated, wrote, edited, stacked, sent, processed, converted, uploaded, and posted. A few months later, after realizing working 7 days a week wasn't healthy, I got more help. We expanded to 7 days a week. I hired a weekend anchor and another producer. And then, it just kept growing.
Brian Andrews, left, and his Team at RCN
At the start, we were just one webcast a day. Then, we grew to two. Then, we added a third. Next, TV Colombia, our international channel, starting running our shows. Then, we expanded to Avianca Airlines. Last month, we revamped the whole operation, built a new website, and started posting single stories, in addition to the webcasts. We also added weather and sports. We encourage user interaction. We have people email us their photos for our constantly changing header. We solicit contributions of stories from people who have the time to produce them and FTP them to us. We're doing it all with a staff of 5 and a budget that works out to less than $12,000 a month. This is the future of news: digitally delivered and made inexpensively. My staff is very young, hungry, and full of ideas and energy. We use existing resources to make our product. We offer the opportunity to anyone in the newsroom who is comfortable speaking English to make pieces for our programs. We also shoot our own stuff with handheld cameras.
For my team, its not work, it's our passion. Plus, we know our project has meaning and impact. We are showing the world there's more going on down here than bombs and kidnappings. We are teaching others how to make Miami style TV for the internet. We are teaching others a new language, a new way of doing things, and a new way of telling stories. Plus, we are still cutting edge. Right now, we are the only product of its kind being produced in Latin America. So, when you want to know what's happening in Colombia, please check us out at www.colombianews.tv! In a time when dream jobs in TV news don't exist anymore... I found mine in Colombia!
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