Print and electronic journalists, expected to deliver the first draft of history, routinely put themselves in harm’s way. But the true dangers of the job became abundantly clear last week.
In Japan, reporters braved the potential of radiation exposure, moving in, then pulling back from what was deemed the secure perimeter of a smoldering nuclear plant.
In Libya, four New York Times journalists went missing while covering the rebellion. They haven’t been heard from since Tuesday.
These stories come on the heels of news crews being roughed up by angry mobs in Cairo last month. For CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, one melee resulted in a beating and sexual assault.
As news consumers, we rarely stop to think: The constant stream of images from the world’s disasters and revolutions require someone to hold the camera and ask the questions on the ground.
For networks and newsrooms, it can be a logistical nightmare; for reporters, a challenge of professionalism versus common sense.
“It is important to be on the ground,” CNN’s Sanjay Gupta said from Tokyo on Tuesday morning. “I’ve proven that to myself in many situations over the years. I’m not a thump-on-my-chest journalist, but obviously this is a very important thing happening in this country and the world.
“We’re not being stupid about it,” he said. “If at some point it doesn’t make sense . . . we have open communication, we’re talking to everybody all the time. Experts, our bosses. Nobody’s told us that we have to leave or have to stay. It’s literally moment by moment.”
U.S. TV networks last week participated in a conference call about the logistics and safety of crews reporting from Japan. At least five networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News among them — shared data about the dangers of coverage given the invisible threat of radiation.
Audiences may or may not appreciate the efforts, but they expect them. The hunger for news last week was immense. Cable news ratings were double the norm, with Fox News on Tuesday drawing 2.5 million viewers, CNN drawing 1.5 million and MSNBC pulling 1 million in prime time.
The hazards are normally more tangible than radiation.
More than 1,000 journalists and staff — translators, fixers, drivers — have died covering stories over the past 10 years, the British-based International News Safety Institute reports. By the INSI count, many died on international battlefields or on assignment to natural disasters, but most died in their home countries.
A generation ago, reporters were admired for their persistence in bringing Watergate to light. In intervening years, public opinion of reporters hovered somewhere between used-car salesmen and dogcatchers.
But the high-profile string of stories in the past year — reported from the rubble of Haiti or the rabble of Tripoli — have put journalists in a new spotlight that may be altering public perceptions of the job.
And social networking, along with long periods on the air, is making real not just the stories but the storytellers, too. ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, in Japan for two days, posted photos and captions on her Facebook page between broadcasts, including: “Heading north to Sendai, prepared for possible radiation. Iodine pills and a badge to detect contamination.”
Shepard Smith on Fox News said he was up to six layers of clothes in Japan’s bitter cold. “I don’t think humans can survive this,” he said.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his crew were forced to move away from the Fukushima nuclear plant after a series of explosions brought the radiation levels to dangerous rates.
On Tuesday, CNN’s Gupta said the group had moved from its original post 60 km (37 miles) away from the safe zone to a site 150-200 km away. “We made a collective decision,” he said, when a ship 135 miles away was detecting higher-than-normal radiation.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports greatly increased attention in recent weeks.
“We’ve had quite a spike in Web traffic, social media queries, Twitter followers and there’s certainly a lot more interest,” said CPJ’s advocacy and communications director, Gypsy Guillen Kaiser. “People who weren’t necessarily aware of us before are getting in touch and expressing solidarity.”
Veteran journalist Marvin Kalb, senior fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, said, “People intuitively sense that this is a very difficult moment. It’s not only economics, not only Wall Street, not only Congress — it’s Mother Nature. There is a bit of a fright in the average citizen.
“Foreign correspondents have been doing this forever, but people suddenly see him or her at work,” Kalb said.
One of Kalb’s favorites, Laura King of the Los Angeles Times, within the last month has reported from Kabul, Cairo and Japan. “In other words, the L.A. Times doesn’t have as many correspondents as they once had, but they send them all over the place.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
