Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 26, 1991 TAG: 9102260190
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
CBS was already on the air with a scheduled news special when Pentagon correspondent David Martin told viewers at 8:26 p.m. that U.S. forces had moved into Iraq and Kuwait "in what is to be called, I think, the opening wave of this ground offensive."
NBC was mere seconds later with its report of a ground war, which interrupted closing credits for the sitcom "Amen," at 8:27. CNN, which shot out ahead of the other networks with its reports from Baghdad when war broke out, dallied behind during the weekend, even crediting the announcement of the ground war's launch to NBC News when it reported it to viewers at 8:30.
ABC followed at 8:32 p.m. All three broadcast networks stayed on the air continuously, wiping out prime-time programming for the night. On NBC, correspondent Brad Willis christened it "G Day," for Ground War.
As it turned out, the ground war had actually begun at 8 p.m., also the start of prime time. If Vietnam was "the living room war," maybe this will turn out to be "the prime-time war."
Interviewed by phone from Dharhan, Saudi Arabia, CBS anchor Dan Rather was asked if it was fair to say CBS was working extra hard on the ground war to make up for its earlier showing.
"Of course it's fair to say that," Rather replied. "You would have to be something less than a realist not to admit that in recent weeks, the pressure was on." CBS has suffered ratings losses to its competitors in addition to a critical drubbing.
More significant perhaps than the first news of the ground war was the first on-scene dispatch from the front lines, an audio report by CBS News correspondent Bob McKeown shortly after 10:30 p.m. Saturday. McKeown, who said he was one mile from the Kuwaiti border, vividly described 3 1 SHALES Shales the "exceedingly heavy bombardment" then going on.
McKeown told Rather the attack was creating "this constant rumble beneath our feet. Literally, I am vibrating as I speak to you." There was no video, however - just a map with McKeown's name super-imposed, plus the words "Live from the Front Lines," which had not been seen until that moment.
There was nothing about this having been "cleared by military censors" because it hadn't been.
The significance of the McKeown report was tripled by the fact that the Pentagon had imposed a news blackout only about two hours earlier. Minutes before McKeown went on the air, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced that military briefings would be suspended indefinitely and cautioned reporters that "from this point forward, we must limit what we say."
"I don't think there are any military secrets here," McKeown told Rather during his report, but he also mentioned his "fear of being detected" by the U.S. military. Rather cut off the report by telling McKeown, "There's some concern about detection, if you understand what I mean."
NBC had a telephone report similar to McKeown's on Sunday from its man in the field, Rick Davis. Then, yesterday morning during a special report preceding "This Week with David Brinkley," ABC aired the first video from near the front lines: correspondent Forrest Sawyer live from Kuwait, standing in front of his handy-dandy portable satellite dish.
"Well it's quite stunning to see you, I must say," declared anchor Peter Jennings.
"We're in the way of a tank," Sawyer said a few minutes later, telling Jennings he had to move. "Can you photograph the tank?" asked Jennings. The camera panned left and there it was. "ABC News Exclusive" was posted on the screen.
Reports like this prompted dozens of phone calls to all the networks from viewers worried that the safety of invading U.S. troops might be jeopardized. On the air Saturday night, CBS's Martin spoke of "angry calls from viewers" already received at the Pentagon and said no military official had said anything to him to indicate that CBS was endangering lives.
"What we are reporting to the best of our knowledge is not giving away any secrets," Martin told viewers.
Asked if the military officials had complained to him about McKeown's reports or any other reports, Rather said Sunday from Dharhan, "They didn't say a word about it. We take seriously our responsibility not to endanger national security or the lives of Americans, or the lives of any allied troops for that matter."
There has been friction between the Pentagon and the media since the war began, of course. A network source who asked not to be identified said yesterday that American military officials seem much more uptight about secrecy than do British, French, Egyptian and other members of the allied coaltion.
"All the allies have the same concerns about endangering lives, but the others are not as restrictive of our movements and they don't seem to mind us being there," the source said.
And only about 18 hours after Cheney had announced the suspension of briefings, Allied Commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf held one anyway. Most of the news was good, prompting ABC's Jennings to speculate on the air that the briefings had been suspended for fear the news would be bad.
The first pool footage from scenes of battle, most of it apparently shot by England's ITN, was on view yesterday on all the networks. It consisted mainly of Iraqis surrendering to allied soldiers somewhere in the desert. One Iraqi kissed the cheek of his Saudi captor as if he considered him more of a liberator; the shirtless man was bleeding slightly from a wound near his neck.
Much anguished prose has been expended on the potential traumatizing effect on national morale should footage of wounded or dead American military personnel be televised. Casualties were extremely light in the first day of the ground war, according to reports, and there was no such footage.
But Brokaw, Rather and other journalists were shown videotape shot by the U.S. military of Iraqi soldiers being mowed down by Apache helicopters, and Rather referred to it on the air as having been bloody. "It has not yet been cleared for the American public to see," Rather said by phone from Dharhan. "Frankly, I think they made a mistake, calling a group of reporters in and showing this stuff and not letting the public see it."
Rather said that Schwarzkopf and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "are doing what they can to let us have as much as they can," but that they face oppositon from "above and below" them.
On the air, Rather has been mostly straightlaced and stony-faced. He seems perhaps overly sensitive to past criticism of his Texas colloquialisms, and so stuck mostly to unadorned reportage, though once he referred to the "cat-quick, eagle-fierce" initiative of U.S. military forces.
Brokaw seems the most stable and unflappable of anchors. ABC's Jennings proved again his enviable endurance for marathon broadcasts. He tends to get a bit imperial with his correspondents and guest experts, however. He interrupted Gen. Bernard Trainor Saturday night to say, "Let's go to our map," a cue to the control room, then interrupted Trainor again to issue the order, "Tony Cordesman, pick this up," an instruction to ABC military consultant Anthony Cordesman.
While CNN reaped a harvest of praise for its war coverage in the first weeks of the conflict, it was less impressive over the weekend. When all it can do is hopscotch its correspondents, it seems mediocre in comparison to the high-priced talent on the other networks.
One competitor, who asked not to be identified, said, "When government permission is required, CNN does quite well, but on a level playing field, it's a different story." Of course, the war is far from over.
Washington Post Writers Group
\ AUTHOR NOTE: Tom Shales is TV Editor and chief TV critic for The Washington Post. TOM
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