THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 25, 1995 TAG: 9504250033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ON TV
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
IN PICTURES SENT by satellite to Hampton Roads from Oklahoma City, WVEC photographer Tony Church has been showing members of a Virginia Beach search and rescue team who look weary to the bone. And why shouldn't they be bushed?
The locals, Virginia Task Force 2, have been working 12- to 14-hour days at the site of a bombing that has taken more than 70 lives. When Church's camera focused on the Virginians heading out into the cold and damp for another round of searching the rubble of what was once a federal office building, viewers watching Channel 13 heard the task force leader sound a warning.
``Don't get sloppy. . . .''
You can get killed doing what Mike Brown, Jim Kellam and the others of the Virginia task force are doing so far from home. The touchy work of search and rescue in that devastated building has already taken one life.
Church, accompanied by reporter Sandra Parker, has given local viewers a you-are-there-with-our-guys experience. You've seen Parker in yellow rain gear. You've seen her in a green hooded number, assuring relatives of those in Virginia Task Force 2 that their loved ones are ``getting some sleep.''
After the bomb went off last Wednesday, it didn't take long for the news directors at the three local network affiliates to decide to cover the story at its source. The shock of the terrible news out of Oklahoma City was just sinking in when WAVY reporter Tom Cobin and photographer Rich Walter caught a flight to Oklahoma last Wednesday.
WTKR sent Stephanie Taylor and photographer Tony Baum.
When I reached Cobin on his cellular phone, he told me that he and Walter worked for about 40 hours without a break after reaching Oklahoma City. The local reporters have been filing reports live for the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Cobin and Walter were also at it last Saturday morning.
From all three local network affiliates, you got the news in the aftermath of the bombing with a local spin, from people with faces you recognize.
``Reporting live from Oklahoma City . . . ''
It showed that here in the 40th largest TV market in the United States, WTKR, WVEC and WAVY did not hesitate to match others in larger markets, and at the network level, in covering a breaking story. Cobin told me that the number of TV journalists in Oklahoma City is enormous.
``The whole world is here,'' he said. ``You hear almost every language spoken.''
The area near the bombed-out building is packed with the people and equipment it takes to send TV pictures out of Oklahoma City. Satellite City, Cobin called it. In fact, there are three satellite cities, he said.
The authorities keep the working press away from the ruined building. ``I've been as close as anyone else,'' Cobin said.
And that isn't very close. There have been rumors of TV journalists and talk-show hosts trying to pass themselves off as search-and-rescue team workers to get closer. Cobin, 36, hasn't lingered at the bombed-out building.
He's out digging for stories and finding them, such as the interview with the great-grandfather of an infant who was pulled from the ruins only to die later. The photograph of the 1-year-old girl in the arms of a firefighter, taken by an amateur who drove downtown to get pictures of what he thought had been a planned demolition, has been seen the world over.
To Cobin and the WAVY viewers, Nobel Almon showed pictures of his great-granddaughter taken at her first birthday party not long ago.
``She was just learning to walk,'' he said. The old man was in tears.
Cobin is a pro. He was a producer at WCBS in New York City before he decided to try life in front of the camera. He has seen pain and suffering before, including the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo. But nothing in a past assignment has touched him like the scene that is his stage in Oklahoma.
The difficult thing for a reporter in Oklahoma City, said Cobin, is ``to continue to be a storyteller and a facts gatherer without becoming affected by a story that is overwhelming and at times unreal.''
It is the kind of assignment that will melt almost any reporter's heart. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Courtesy of WVEC
Monday in Oklahoma City, WVEC reporter Sandra Parker, right,
interviewed Bob Anderson of Virginia Beach, a member of Virginia
Task Force 2.
by CNB