Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Media organizations plan ahead to provide accurate crisis coverage
By Piper Huddleston
Staff Reporter

Gordon Keith normally serves as comic relief during the his morning sports show on 1310 AM The Ticket, and all-sports radio station. Tuesday he was reporting the news.

When disaster strikes, the public has come to expect around-the-clock coverage. To coordinate this coverage, it takes quick planning and natural curiosity, said Paul Harral, vice president and editorial director for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

“Generally it’s not rocket science,” Harral said. “The most important thing is to figure out what you would want to know if you were a reader and then answer those questions.”

The Star-Telegram has a special crisis team that is experienced in handling emergency situations, Harral said. He said the team is prepared to fly to New York City as soon as airports reopen.

When disasters break, Harral said editors generally get together to brainstorm general story topics. From there, reporters are broken up into teams to cover these topics.

Newspapers across the country, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News put out special editions.

Information during a catastrophe comes from wire services, people calling in information, reporters calling contacts and live coverage, Harral said. The challenge of a reporter is to sort through that information for what is reliable.

The Star-Telegram has a fact board, where they list everything they know to be true and all reporters verify their information with the board, Harral said.

“You get real cautious,” Harral said. “You try not to overstep anything.”

John Miller, adjunct journalism professor and former news director at WFAA Channel 8, said reporters frequently make mistakes when covering an event with speculation flying around.

When the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, reporters assumed Middle East terrorists were responsible, although it was actually Timothy McVeigh. Credibility is lost when reporters speculate, Miller said.

Miller said stakes can be big when covering events like those on Tuesday.

“This is the first time in history that people have actually witnessed an airplane crash into the second largest building in the United States,” he said. “This is the biggest event to be on TV since the assassination of (President John F. Kennedy), and it may be bigger.”

Sports editor Brandon Ortiz contributed to this report
Piper Huddleston
c.p.huddleston@student.tcu.edu