TV AS HOSTAGE: NOW WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?

TV has become society’s electronic turnstile, a gangplank, a passage, the start of something big.

That something may be access or entree, the means to instantly communicate with thousands, sometimes millions of viewers. The red light comes on, and you’re immediately reaching the world.

Or the payoff may be personal fame, wherein the messenger becomes the message.

The terrorist kidnaping of now-free journalist Charles Glass and the exploding celebrity of Iran- contra figure Fawn Hall apply.

So does Wednesday’s bizarre and frightening KNBC-TV incident which received national coverage. It also reflects anew the mutually exploitative relationship--one that is sometimes unavoidable--linking news media and newsmakers.

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KNBC consumer specialist David Horowitz was just getting into his report at 4:42 p.m. Wednesday when a man--later identified as Gary Stollman--appeared behind him holding what seemed to be a handgun and ordered him to read a long, rambling statement on the air or be shot. With outward cool, Horowitz complied as co-anchors John Beard and Kirstie Wilde sat frozen a few feet from Horowitz and Stollman and news director Tom Capra in another room ordered the program to go black.

Stollman was on the air live for only 28 seconds, KNBC said later. For the next seven minutes, KNBC broadcast an NBC logo and program promos while Horowitz read the statement, with Stollman apparently believing the newscast was still on the air.

When Horowitz had finished, Stollman put down his weapon, which turned out to be a toy replica, and was taken into custody. Then the newscast resumed, with Beard and Wilde explaining what had happened.

By evening’s end, in fact, more than one thing had happened.

First there was the tense, nightmarish incident itself (Wilde could be heard gasping upon seeing Stollman’s plastic .45-caliber pistol replica). Next came exhaustive coverage of the incident that night on KNBC and other Los Angeles stations (and in Thursday’s newspapers, moreover), with more to come.

Who came out a winner? In a curious, yet predictable way, everyone.

Although he was cut off the air, Stollman did achieve some of what he wanted. At least a portion of his unclear and befuddling statement--which alluded in part to his father, former KNBC pharmaceutical reporter Max Stollman; the CIA and a plot to overthrow the government--was aired and reported in newspapers as part of the coverage.

And along with a scare, KNBC got a terrific story, albeit not one it sought, or handled improperly or self-servingly. But terrific, nevertheless.

The symbiosis connecting news medium and newsmaker automatically became operative. No matter how mentally disturbed he may have been, Stollman had a message. The desperate way he chose to deliver that message became a news story. And the media are in the business of reporting news stories.

KNBC naturally led its 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts with the story. Its coverage was exemplary and unsensational. Horowitz was interviewed. Beard and Wilde were interviewed. There was a 6:30 p.m. press conference for other media, a portion of which was aired on the 11 p.m. newscast.

The story was also prominently featured on other stations, including KABC-TV, which had Lonnie Lardner on the scene interviewing a police officer about the toy gun. And on KCBS-TV, former KNBC anchors John Schubeck and Tritia Toyota seemed shaken. He and Toyota “were both watching the program” when Stollman suddenly appeared, Schubeck reported.

And then came the next day’s front-page newspaper stories and pictures and today’s coverage of the coverage.

As it turned out, Stollman got quite a lot for his trouble.

“We took him off the air, because we cannot allow people like this to take television stations hostage,” Capra said afterward. In effect, though, Stollman did indeed take KNBC hostage, and the other media as well, by becoming a news story they could not ignore.

As recent history shows, there are other ways to do it without walking into a TV studio and brandishing a weapon.

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Glass, the reporter on leave from ABC, was on TV Wednesday, too, being interviewed in London about his flight from Muslim fundamentalist kidnapers in Lebanon after more than two months’ captivity. (See related story on Page 21.)

While a hostage, Glass made a videotaped “confession” that he had worked with the CIA, a statement that he read--trying in the process to drop hints that he was under duress--with a revolver aimed at his head.

The statement got wide TV exposure in the United States, and Glass now thinks that was a mistake. Such tapes--which seem to be an inevitable propaganda spinoff in hostage cases--serve “the captors, not the captive,” he said.

Glass’ remarks “hit me like a bolt,” said CNN reporter Jeremy Levin, who spent 11 months as a hostage in Lebanon. Levin said on CNN that he wasn’t sure he agreed with Glass’ views about broadcasting hostage tapes and that he’d have to think about it.

In any event, they will continue to be broadcast, you can be sure of that. This is yet another case of terrorists holding the media hostage along with their captives and manipulating TV from across the seas.

Any information about unseen, unheard-from hostages--whether its purpose is propaganda or distortion--is almost always news. Hence, TV continues to be the terrorist’s currency and entree to global millions.

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TV is nothing if not eclectic, so superagent Norman Brokaw of the famed William Morris agency got his shot on TV Wednesday, too.

The agency’s newest client is none other than Hall, former secretary to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, former witness in the Iran- contra hearings and--according to Brokaw--future star.

He said he sees a book ahead for Hall, and then a movie based on the book, followed by a “career in broadcasting because she showed she has the ability to hold an audience.”

Brokaw had the evidence--booming ratings for the hearings on CNN when Hall appeared.

Credit Hall with loyalty, great looks and great shredding, and she may also be a crackerjack secretary. But a book and movie about her? Vanna talks, so Fawn types?

Hall seemed the reluctant witness at the hearings, frequently dour and defensive, perhaps not cognizant of the payoff ahead. Look how this has mushroomed. We used to wonder who would play Fawn--Kim Basinger?--in Ollie’s story. Now it’s the reverse.

All because she can hold a TV audience.

The scenario is set. After the book and movie will come the inevitable exercise cassette, followed by that broadcasting career Brokaw predicted. Well, there are some newscasts that could use some help. “Good evening, this is the ‘CBS Evening News’ with Dan Rather and Fawn Hall.”

Message and messenger. On TV, the gap narrows.