TV reporters prepared, but lack of video makes coverage tough

When the inevitable happened, the major TV news outlets were ready. They had been as surprised as anyone by the timing of the airstrikes on Afghanistan, but you wouldn't have known from watching their coverage Sunday afternoon. With three weeks to prepare, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and NBC all seamlessly reported the opening salvos in what could be the most heavily televised war in history. Yet there was so little video to televise on Sunday that people who monitored the day's events by car radio didn't miss much. Americans have been told to return to their normal lives. They've also been told that life will never be the same as before. Sunday's news coverage captured that ambivalence perfectly. It marked a turning point in the West's war on terrorism, yet the lack of available details - visual or otherwise - seemed to drain all urgency out of the moment. For example, no sooner did NBC's Tom Brokaw declare that the Sept. 11 attacks "altered American life in ways no one could have anticipated one month ago" than his network signed him off so it could carry the last half-hour of a NASCAR race. Whatever altered American life, it apparently didn't take away its appetite for motor sports. One indicator that things have not returned to normal: The Emmy Awards were called off for a second time. If they are canceled outright, it will be the first time in the event's 53-year history. The Emmys originally were scheduled for Sept. 16 in Los Angeles, but the attacks forced a change in date, venue and format. The television academy planned a subdued telecast paying homage to the heroes and victims of the attacks. A portion was to have aired from New York, an admission that celebrities, like other Americans, are nervous about air travel. By 3:30 p.m. only one of the four local network affiliates was still carrying coverage of the airstrikes. Fox affiliate WDAF, Channel 4, and CBS affiliate KCTV, Channel 5, both carried football games. The exception was KMBC, Channel 9, where ABC's Peter Jennings presided over what has been TV's most visually restrained coverage of Sept. 11 and its aftermath. ABC has put no slogans on its screen, no animated flags, no news ticker, no on-screen text summarizing what was just said five seconds ago. Only Jennings in his shirtsleeves and an ABC logo in the corner. At the other extreme, Fox News Channel used a Halloween-themed typeface for its on-air slogan ("America Strikes Back") and repeatedly used a flashy animation in which the words zoomed onto the screen: America! Strikes! Back! And that was some of the more compelling video on Sunday. For all their preparations, the networks had precious little to show in the hours after the raids. On one videotape, acquired from the Arabic network Al Jazeera, you could see a few flecks of light in the black Afghani night. They sailed toward the horizon and then just seemed to vanish. A minor ruckus broke out among the news channels over that video. Al Jazeera had granted CNN an exclusive six-hour window for any pictures taken off its air - including the videotape of Osama bin Laden released soon after the bombing. Though CNN's Aaron Brown mentioned the "exclusive" video of the air strikes, within minutes Fox and NBC were showing it as well. CNN briefly bristled, but decided not to fight for its exclusive. Given the paucity of useful video, that was a noble sacrifice to make. CNN also trumpeted "exclusive" pictures from Afghanistan, sent by videophone. But there was nothing to see: just a haze of night-vision photography, ill-defined shades of phosphorous green, a grainy tableau that looked like the bottom of the ocean. President Bush chose an interesting backdrop for his address announcing the airstrikes - a window that looked out on the Jefferson Memorial and, behind the president, street traffic. If the visual was meant to show the nation's capital getting back to normal, it succeeded. However, the networks seemed to rely more heavily on video of another address given later on Sunday by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Americans love a British accent, and Blair - who has become a media fixture in recent days - also has a fine ear for language. When he described Sunday's events as "a moment of the utmost gravity," it came as close as anything to weighing the true measure of what had begun that day out of the view of Western cameras. You can reach Aaron Barnhart at (816) 234-4790 or through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com