Eye of the storm

Katrina marks a changing of the guard among tube journos

By MICHAEL LEARMONTH

NEW YORK -- Four years ago, network anchors Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings brought decades of experience to their coverage of 9/11, a story that would define the country for years to come.

It turned out to be the last hurrah for that generation: In the past eight months, Rather and Brokaw retired and Jennings died.

Now, Katrina -- a natural disaster that may eclipse 9/11 in scope and certainly death toll -- has marked a turning point for TV's new generation of reporters. While politicians provided homilies about disasters bringing out the best in people, Katrina showed that a genuine news story can bring out the best in reporters. Great performances came from the expected places (CNN's Anderson Cooper, NBC's Brian Williams) and from some unexpected ones (Fox News' Shepard Smith, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough).

From this crucible, a new generation is emerging, likely to have a more lasting impact on the business than the first Gulf War's Scud Stud or even Florida's Chad Lad.

In the fetid waters of New Orleans, journalists found circumstances unfamiliar to many journalists: no press briefing, no warm embrace of government communications professionals, no unit to "embed" with.

With no official storyline, no talking points, and no data to regurgitate, they were left with what they could see: human beings facing profound, and in some cases needless, misery and death.

NBC's Williams solidified his claim as the only certain heir to the Brokaw-Rather-Jennings mantle. He was the only network anchor to position himself in the path of the storm; while he could have gone to Mississippi, where Katrina's winds were higher, he was in New Orleans to watch the greater disaster -- the flooding -- unfold.

"You can't discount the jump this story gives Brian Williams," says Steve Friedman, a producer who's had a long career that's spanned "Nightly News," "Today" and "The Early Show." "Whether it was good planning or luck, it doesn't matter."

In the first week of the disaster, viewers voted with their remotes, giving "Nightly News" a 31% lift to 10.6 million viewers, compared with 9.5 million for ABC's "World News Tonight" and 7.7 million for CBS' "Evening News" according to Nielsen Media Research.

Katrina is giving perhaps the clearest peek at the future faces of the other broadcast nets: ABC's Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas shared anchor duties in the field with Charlie Gibson in the studio. CBS elevated John Roberts to prominence, allowing him to report from the field in New Orleans and introduce stories from other reporters.

In cable, Cooper burnished a reputation built during the Asian tsunami, Iraq and other foreign stories as CNN's go-to anchor-correspondent for breaking news. His confrontation with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) was one of the more poignant and memorable moments to come out of Katrina.

But the true breakout performance was turned in by Fox News Channel's Smith.

Until Katrina, Smith was known mostly as a newsreader, who headed the fast-paced "Studio B" to get viewers primed for Fox's better-known stars Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren. But the Mississippi native's interviews with survivors as they waded out from the swampy morass onto a freeway underpass showed natural reportorial instincts and provided some of the disaster's most compelling footage.

"Part of it was his local knowledge, his accent and phrasing," says broadcast analyst Andrew Tyndall, adding he didn't come off as an interloper among the locals.

Smith conveyed a sense of outrage that challenged the orthodoxy of Fox News, which seemed overly focused in the first few days on the looting that was taking place.

Smith's newfound reportorial stature earned him cult status on the Web, where videos of his performance bounced around and David Letterman understandably invited him to appear on the "Late Show," where he described the scene.

"There were thousands of people coming out of the sewage with nowhere to go," he said, explaining why he and his crew chose the overpass to make a stand. "We felt people had to know what was happening -- things we never thought we'd see in America."

Then, a flourish of Fox populism: "We've got to bring the news to the people, Dave."

Fox finished the week as the top cable network -- beating entertainment stalwarts USA and TNT.

It would be hard to find a community in the United States with a more distinct culture than New Orleans, which is why Smith and other reporters with Gulf states background found themselves at a distinct advantage connecting with people -- and even finding beds to sleep in.

"Louisiana is a culturally unique place. To a certain extent I speak the language and that helps," says NBC's Campbell Brown, a Louisiana native, whose cousin led her to a group of toddlers in Baton Rouge who'd become separated from their parents.

Pensacola, Fla., resident and MSNBC personality Scarborough is known mostly for hewing to administration talking points, but his political pedigree and experience made him one of the most credible reporters and commentators on the failures of the response to Katrina.

Scarborough drove through Mississippi on Aug. 29 and spent a week in Biloxi where the eye tore through. It was three days before he saw a soul come to help the victims.

"My wife and I saw young kids wandering around. Families stumbling around looking for water," he says.

Scarborough is an expert in hurricane preparedness and recovery, having lived through at least 20 as both a citizen and government official. He knows how government can and should respond, and his reporting and unvarnished analysis is making him a headache within his own party.

"This is the worst response to a disaster I've ever seen," he says. "We could not believe there were no police, nothing from FEMA, nothing from the state governments."

That the media arrived on the scene faster and showed more insight than government reps was a recurring theme in the early days after Katrina landed. They balanced dispassionate description with an appropriate amount of outrage and in the process redeemed a reputation tarnished by accusations of spending too much time on trivial pursuits (e.g., Aruba) or passively accepting the info that was being handed to them (Iraq).

"This was exceptional journalism," Tyndall says. "First, they're pulling it off and making it righteous without showboating. Second, they're showing suffering without being mawkish, which is also difficult."