TV & VIDEO - Aug. 9, 1988

Offbeat TV news savant Linda Ellerbee, herself launching a TV production company, told NBC’s Bob Costas that NBC management refused to intervene when the late NBC anchorwoman Jessica Savitch developed serious personal problems, including drug use. Ellerbee says on the premiere of the late-night talk show “Later With Bob Costas,” to air Aug. 22, that she and other NBC correspondents did what they could to reach out to Savitch, but she died before they could do anything. “At one point,” Ellerbee said, “I went to NBC management and said, ‘You have to do something. This woman’s in trouble.’ An NBC vice president said to me, ‘We’re afraid to do anything. We’re afraid she’ll kill herself on our time.’ ” Savitch’s story is worth telling, Ellerbee said, “as a cautionary tale” for young women and men entering television journalism.