Policing the Use of Home Videotapes : Television: News directors say they are eager to look at any newsworthy tape, like the one of the Rodney King incident, but warn against the possibility of fakes.

Local TV news directors acknowledge that the risk of encountering faked home video footage is probably on the rise now that more and more camcorder owners realize stations are willing to pay cash for newsworthy tapes. But all of them are confident in their ability to spot a fraud long before it hits the air.

And while news executives contend that it is the rare home video that is worth anything, they say that the occasional availability of some extraordinary amateur tape--exemplified by this week’s footage of Los Angeles police officers beating a suspect on a dark street--can be a great help in their ability to serve the public.

“There’s always a danger that a tape is a fraud, and ultimately for us it’s a leap of faith,” said Jose Rios, KCBS Channel 2 news director. “But we have to represent the viewers’ interest, and that means verifying and confirming everything before it airs.”

“Our editorial judgment comes into play on anything that is presented to us, from a press release from a publicist to information from a public agency or a congressman or Joe Citizen,” said Warren Cereghino, KTLA Channel 5’s news director, whose station was the first to buy the tape of this week’s apparent police brutality. “We have to apply the same judgment and common sense to a home videotape. But my gut feeling is that if anyone is inspired to fake a tape to make a buck, it will be transparent.”

“If somebody says, ‘Look at my home video of this UFO,’ that would be a real tough one,” said Dick Tuininga, news director at KTTV Channel 11. “They would have to have a tape of the little green guy talking to Mayor Bradley before we’d buy it. Usually what they have is a fire on their block or a bad accident or a tornado or something you already know about or can easily verify.”

None of the news executives contacted for this story remembered any local station being duped by a home video shooter. Cereghino said that only once did someone try to sell him a fake tape, and the tape’s inauthenticity was immediately obvious.

For most of the tapes that stations receive, the issue is not that the event might be manufactured, but that it simply isn’t worth buying. Jeff Wald, news director at KCOP Channel 13, said that often the tapes show something like a routine car accident that is big news for residents of the street where it occured but not for anyone else.

Still, stations are eager to look at any tape that sounds remotely newsworthy in the hopes of coming up with something big. And if it is, they’ll pay to broadcast it. Though the fee varies depending on the quality of the video, stations generally will pay about $125. For his grisly tape of police misconduct, however, George Holliday made $500 from Channel 5, $150 more from CNN and another $500 from KNBC Channel 4.

“Our policy is if it’s good video, we’ll buy it,” Wald said. The last amateur video that KCOP bought was of a test missile that blew up over the desert about six months ago. KTTV bought amateur video of last month’s plane crash at Los Angeles International Airport, shot by an airport employee.

“These kinds of tapes can provide a real checks and balance on police agencies and other public officials,” Wald added. “I think it’s very healthy.”

“People are really Johnny on the Spot and this home video sometimes allows us to show an event as it unfolds, rather than just the aftermath of the event shot when the news crew gets there,” Rios said.

To date, however, local stations have not been bombarded with tapes. Rios said that KCBS probably receives about one such tape every two weeks; Cereghino guessed that KTLA received a tape maybe once a month. A KNBC Channel 4 spokeswoman said that news people there “regularly get calls offerring home video,” especially after a big event such as a plane crash or fire.

Aside from KNBC’s Fred Roggin asking for home videos of spectacular sports plays or bloopers, none of the local stations formally solicit tapes of news events from amateur shooters. CNN and stations in several other cities, however, have implemented video clubs that call for amateur cameramen to send in tapes. Some stations have even aired reports on their newscasts instructing viewers on the fine art of shooting news.

KCOP’s Wald said that he is contemplating setting up some sort of home video hot line for viewers to call whenever they have something they want to sell. Tuininga countered that inviting viewers to think, “what can I shoot here that will make it on the news?” is probably inviting an increase in fraud.

Besides the infrequent home videotapes they are offered, local stations frequently buy video from professional “stringers,” many of whom prowl the wee hours of the night for crime scenes and accidents. Several news directors said that between their own crews and these stringers, it is extremely rare that the average person will be in the position to shoot something newsworthy “that we don’t already have.”

But in those rare instances when the tape is remarkable, local stations want it, and they want it first.

Holliday has said that he took his tape to KTLA because it is his favorite station. KTLA bought the tape from him with “a handshake agreement,” according to Cereghino, and played it as a huge scoop on its 10 p.m. news Monday. KTLA then fed it to CNN, with which it has an affiliate agreement, with the caveat that CNN embargo the footage to all other Los Angeles stations, because Cereghino wanted one more night of exclusive local coverage.

But KNBC got a copy of the tape through KPNX in Phoenix, which is both a CNN and an NBC affiliate. Cereghino said that a KNBC executive called him Tuesday morning saying that unless he could produce a written contract that gave KTLA exclusive rights to the video, KNBC was going to air the tape early that afternoon. Over Cereghino’s objections, KNBC paid Holliday $500 and aired the tape.

“We bought the rights to the tape from the man who shot it,” the KNBC spokeswoman said. She would not say how the station came up with a copy of the tape. Holliday had turned over his only copy to KTLA the previous day.

“They broke the embargo in their greedy rush to jump the gun on everyone else,” Cereghino said. “So I immediately gave permission to all the other stations to use the tape. Free of charge. I sent dubs over to KABC and KCBS so they too would have it on their afternoon newscasts.”

Cereghino asked only that the other local stations credit KTLA when they played the tape. Channels 2, 7, 11 and 13 all did so; KCAL Channel 9 did not.

“It’s simply the honorable thing to do,” KTTV’s Tuininga said.

“The credit from other stations is important when it is such an incredible piece of videotape because it was a tribute to our image and the good relationship we have with our viewers,” Cereghino explained. “The guy (Holliday) called us because we are his favorite station. You want people to know that.”