A Producer’s-Eye View of Gulf War

TV or not TV. . . .

FLASHBACK: In January of 1991, Robert Wiener was in Baghdad, producing CNN’s historic TV coverage of the start of the Gulf War.

All the world knew Peter Arnett, Bernard Shaw and John Holliman and their extraordinary audio reports from Room 906 of the Al-Rasheed Hotel in the Iraqi capital.

But Wiener, now based in Paris, was the man behind the scenes quarterbacking the cable network’s team under fire as the live TV war was beamed around the globe.

And now, a year later, he has written a book, “Live From Baghdad,” which--in even a casual first scan--grabs you with its hell-bent, rough-house, irreverent and yet poignant account of that amazing experience.

A former Los Angeles bureau chief for CNN, Wiener now is touring to promote the book, which Doubleday published Jan. 16, and in a visit here he said he is discussing a possible deal to turn it into a film.

“At least three major studios have expressed interest,” he says. “I think it would be a hell of a movie. That night (the start of the war) was one of those seminal moments. Everyone today remembers where they were when Bernie, Peter and John” delivered their reports.

As those dramatic hours unfolded, says Wiener, “I thought, ‘There are 900 million people around the world listening.’ That’s why I wrote the book. It’s about journalists--what we do.”

There is a raucous, death-watch humor in the book that brings you up short at times. Says Wiener: “It was a lot of fun to write this book, except when I started to write about the war itself, because then it was gut-wrenching. You have to live it again.”

He wrote it in four months in Berlin, where he was based with his wife and two children before the Gulf crisis erupted. The book was supposed to come out in October. But, always the newsman, “I suggested we delay publication until the anniversary of the war, which I thought would be a good peg.”

Wiener is no blushing violet when it comes to discussing his CNN team. “It was the journalistic equivalent of walking on the moon,” he says, using a line from his book. “It seems to me my colleagues in Baghdad all made history, and that is no small achievement.”

The “most agonizing” decision for the CNN team, he says, was dramatized when Walter Cronkite, in the United States, spoke to “The Boys of Baghdad” live on the air as they were sending home their reports from Room 906.

Said Cronkite at the time: “The decision to stay in a place that is clearly a major danger zone, where one’s mortality has to be considered on the line, is probably the toughest decision that any newspaperman or reporter ever had to make.”

Writes Wiener: “I looked at my colleagues. . . . The impact of Walter’s words hit everyone hard. That’s exactly what we’re doing, I thought, coming to grips with our mortality.”

Looking back, Wiener says: “The thing that makes me proudest is the way I dealt with my colleagues in talking about the decision of staying or going, without putting undue pressure on them in any way. I think I handled it like a mensch .”

Wiener says Doubleday has told him that “it’s difficult to get me on the other networks (to promote the book) because they don’t want to laud CNN. My book takes a harsh look at how the other networks covered the war.

“I tried to put down what happened faithfully. This book won’t live or die on whether I appear on ‘Good Morning America.’ I would get much more satisfaction knowing that it’s read in journalism schools.”

COMEBACK: That “Roots” revival on cable’s Family Channel was a solid success last week, increasing the network’s ratings by about 400% and averaging a tune-in of more than 2 million homes for the 12-hour miniseries.

DRAWING BOARD: Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw will host a Lifetime cable documentary about infant mortality, “Shattered Lullabies,” on March 25.

PRIORITIES: CBS employees, who have undergone severe cutbacks, must have been thrilled to read that their boss, Laurence Tisch, was trying to pour a fortune into debt-ridden Macy’s, another of his investments.

ROYALTY: What a surprise to discover on American Movie Classics that Claudette Colbert’s 1934 “Cleopatra” was a much more captivating, exotic and erotic film than the 1963 version with Elizabeth Taylor. And in black-and-white too.

TREND: Rita Moreno is yet another top show business name now seen regularly on cable, as host of the Travel Channel’s “Countries of the World.” Look, if you’re not getting some of these lesser-known but enjoyable outlets like the Travel Channel, the Nostalgia Channel and the Learning Channel, you’re getting lousy service. Call up your cable company and demand them.

IN THE WIND: Bob Dylan joins the all-star band on David Letterman’s Feb. 6 prime-time special marking the 10th anniversary of his late-night series.

HAIR: Every time I see reruns of TV shows from the ‘60s, I think of how absurd we looked with our sideburns. But, listen, those mustaches were OK.

SURE THING: If that “Driving Miss Daisy” TV series ever develops for Angela Lansbury, it will run for as long as “Murder, She Wrote.”

BEING THERE: “When you don’t yell and holler the loudest is when they hear you the most.”--Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) in “MASH.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .