The Man in the Hat | article | Reverse Angle: When News Breaks, Can we Fix it?

   On the morning of Halloween 2003, a large contingent of the press core waited outside the Van Nuys courthouse while the trial of actor Robert Blake went through its motions upstairs. Court TV had the pool feed assignment for video and also had a live set along the walkway. Mr. Blake had arrived earlier. Flanked by his attorneys, plain clothes Sheriff's Deputies and Detectives, the defendant said little on his entrance and so we waited outside and prepared a press conference area for post-hearing remarks. It was a chilly Friday morning. It was another assignment.

   Then the situation changed.

   First, I heard two blasts that I quickly deduced to be louder than just a backfiring automobile. I hit the record button on my camera which was set for the distance and lighting of our makeshift press conference. I trained the lens in the direction of two men by a tree. I adjusted the focus and the iris as the tape continued to roll. The sounds from a handgun continued to blast.

   A man in a khaki jacket who was later identified as William Strier was (allegedly) shooting another man in a suit at close range approximately thirty feet from me. The man in the suit was later identified as attorney Gerald Curry. During the gunfire, television camera operator of the Court TV crew, Danny Diaz walked, while rolling tape, up to within ten feet of the action. The shooting stopped and Strier walked away, Diaz trailing the alleged shooter.

   Many people will tell you that they know had they will react in a given situation. I often wonder how their expectations compare with their actions in real time. It is one thing to armchair quarterback. It is an entirely different experience to be in the ball game.

   My instincts were multiple and conflicting. While I did roll and captured the video and audio, I did not know at the time if what I was seeing with my eyes was real. Was this guerrilla film-making? How foolish to do it so close to the Van Nuys division of the LAPD. Was this a man "gone postal?" Would the gunman turn around at fire at my friend and colleague, Danny Diaz? Were we all in danger? Could we be next? It was all very surreal.

   Attorney and reserve Sheriff's Deputy, David Katz identified himself and then clothesline tackled the alleged gunman. He was quickly handcuffed and under arrest. I ran to see Mr. Curry now on the ground on his back. The smell of his blood in the air.

   While watching my tape and the tapes of the Court TV cameras show that the episode began and ended quickly, my experience at the scene was that time expanded into some kind of wormhole. Seconds seemed to take minutes. Although I have been in some precarious situations before--the 1992 Civil Unrest aka "Rodney King Riot" comes to mind, I had forewarning and a chance to mentally/psychologically prepare and plan.

    This story came seemingly out of a late October blue sky.

    What are the responsibilities of the media? Are we merely there to record events as they unfold before us? Is there a point when we should retreat to safer ground to shoot another story another day? Should we put down our cameras and assist? Recent history holds some opinions.

   There were photographers at a drowning who stopped being cameramen and jumped into the water to rescue the victims. During the 1996 Presidential campaign, GOP nominee Senator Bob Dole of Kansas started to fall off of a raised platform when two still photographers put down their cameras to catch the fall of the candidate with their hands rather than their lenses. Doubtless that there are countless other examples. Where do we draw the lines? Are there really lines to be drawn? Often the situations, like life itself, are fluid.

   The story continued as more press arrived even after Mr. Curry was wheeled to an ambulance. As happens so often lately, the media turned on itself. Danny Diaz was center stage of another press conference after having been questioned by authorities. After another camera crew and an anchor from "Celebrity Justice" came on the scene, I found myself on the other end of cameras facing reporter's questions. Upon my return to the studio, a crew from NBC network was there to interview me for "Dateline" about the shooting in front of my footage. I had already been booked to go live that afternoon for "Countdown" on MSNBC. As I waited, I saw myself appear regularly throughout the KABC-7 afternoon newscast. The next day was spent preparing for 90 seconds of airtime on "The Big Story" on the Fox News Channel.

   What light could I really shed on that day beyond what my camera had recorded? The whole event puts me in mind of the speculation mill that cranks up when, for instance, an Alaska Airline jet crashes into the Pacific Ocean. While it will take months for the NTSB (National Transportation & Safety Board) to ferret out the cause of the accident, television news programs race each other to jump to unfounded conclusions. When the definitive answer actually arrives, it is rarely the lead and all-consuming story that it was when pictures either recent or "LIVE" were plentiful while facts were in short supply.

   Technology has been driving the business for sometime. We go "LIVE" because we can. We go "LIVE" because some consultant has convinced the News Directors that those four letters on the screen will make the viewers sit up and take notice. We go "LIVE" at the scene of something that occurred sixteen hours ago, but we're "LIVE!"

    We've all heard the classic reporter track at stories like this: "Shots rang out...." As of Tuesday the following week, a TV crew was still combing the corridor and doing "reporter-involvement" stand-ups from behind the tree that Gerald Curry had used to fend off the bullets. One passerby mused that it was only a matter of time until they interviewed the tree.

   While this case grinds its way through the justice system and the microwave and satellite trucks all speed to the next live shot location, this story has a momentary happier ending. Mr. Curry and all of us in attendance outside the Van Nuys Courthouse that day may not be "LIVE" but are alive.