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| HANDLING
BOMB SCARES |
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"We don't report hoaxes" used to be the standard
answer when a station faced the question of whether to cover an unsubstantiated
threat to public safety. Now, of course, all that has changed. Viewers
need information to protect themselves from real hazards like anthrax
or pipe bombs. That sometimes means reporting potential, as well as
real, threats to public safety. At the 2002 RTNDA convention in Las
Vegas, several news directors offered strategies for covering public
safety threats.
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- Have a plan. "Every station should have
a written policy on bomb threats," said Steve Schwaid, vice
president for news programming for NBC TV Stations. Schwaid was
news director at Philadelphia's WCAU-TV during a period when several
pipe bombs were discovered in the station's coverage area. One
day, said Schwaid, there was a report of a possible bomb at a
newspaper vending box. Local stations, including his, immediately
dispatched helicopters and began airing live pictures of the scene.
The "bomb" turned out to be two flares. Schwaid and
his colleagues asked themselves, "What are we doing?"
They answered that question by writing a policy that said, "If
they find a device we'll report it." Otherwise, he said,
"We'll report police activity only if it's important that
people know about it." To develop your own guidelines, consult
this checklist
for covering bomb threats.
- Report more, air less. "You need to be
in the mindset of getting everything and then work backwards in
[deciding] what you air," said former WFTV news director
Lyn Tolan, who suggests trying to "break [the incident] down
and cover the pieces of it." "Have your trucks and people
in place," says Schwaid, and then decide when to pull the
trigger. "Viewers," he believes, "don't care if
you get beat by 15 minutes."
- Report the story before launching sidebars.
How many times have you seen "team coverage" of a threat
that ultimately turned out to be a non-story? "People are
very confused," Tolan said. Telling them, "This may
not be anthrax but if it was..." can be misleading to viewers,
overwhelming them with the perception of a danger that doesn't
really exist. Tolan suggests waiting a day to do sidebars because
the story off which you're bouncing other stories "may not
be what you think it is."
- Put it in perspective. "Do the math,"
said Tolan. Compare the number of threats this year to the same
period one year or five years ago. Compare overtime costs for
emergency personnel or hours of missed class time for school kids.
Data not only helps illustrate economic costs, it helps the newsroom
determine what weight to give the story.
- Look for deeper themes. "The 'what' is
often interesting but the 'why' is often important," said
the Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins. These stories are not just
"incidents," they are almost always the result of somebody's
actions. If someone is apprehended, follow their case and report
their motives and the consequences of what they did. If others
are affected, whether a student who must re-take a test because
of a bomb threat at school or the elderly resident who worries
about opening her mailbox, report those stories, too.
- Consider the viewers' perspective. "We
have to stop scaring people by the way we report threats,"
said Schwaid, who believes competition among stations causes them
to air far too much unsubstantiated information far too fast.
"Don't do television for yourself or your competitors, do
it for viewers," he urged. Tompkins implored producers to
consider the kind of impression left on viewers who see "pictures
of people running around in bio-hazard suits," when the incident
is a hoax.
- Temper your tone. Tompkins urged broadcasters
to think about the tone they set when they use words like "chaos"
and "terror" and by the kinds of teases, leads and graphics
they use with public safety stories. Said Tompkins, "The
tone of what you report should not be contrary to the careful
reporting of facts you include in your stories."
- Explain yourself. Let viewers in on the process
you use to decide what to report and what not to report. "We
put out a press release saying what our policy [on covering bomb
threats] was," said Schwaid. "It changed what we did
and, to an extent, what others in the market did. We all toned
it down a little."
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