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.
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