Brave New World for Iraq Coverage

Beyond the political implications of U.S. bombing missions in Iraq, television’s coverage of the story highlights changes that have shaped TV news in the nearly eight years since the Persian Gulf War.

Perhaps most significant is the full-blown shift to what’s been dubbed the 24-hour news cycle. Neither MSNBC nor Fox News Channel existed in 1991, when CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the war heightened its prominence, generated memorable images and produced some of the highest ratings in the network’s history.

With those two additional all-news channels signing on, instant coverage of news events has increased dramatically, compelling the major networks to reexamine the threshold of what qualifies as breaking news.

Bob Murphy, ABC’s senior vice president of hard news, said the major networks can’t compete with news channels in terms of quantity in their reporting and must constantly evaluate whether an event or a new wrinkle in an ongoing story justifies cutting into regular programming.

“What is news for them as 24-hour news operations is not necessarily breaking news for us,” Murphy said. “We can’t let that kind of coverage affect us. We have to be careful that we maintain a very real, separate sense of what’s important.”

Instead, the major networks have funneled more of their resources into prime-time newsmagazines. Eleven network news hours currently air in prime time, emphasizing packaged stories and analysis, but often they are unable to respond as quickly or effectively to breaking-news situations.

A tightening economic climate for broadcasters has also led to cost-cutting initiatives at the major networks, diminishing their presence overseas. CNN, meanwhile, has staked out international news as its competitive turf, proudly noting that it is the only western TV news organization with a regular presence in Iraq, including five correspondents in Baghdad.

“While others cut back, we have grown and grown and continue to do so,” said Eason Jordan, CNN’s president of international networks and global news gathering. “CNN takes the world seriously, and that’s one of the things that distinguish us from all competitors.”

The combination of the impeachment hearings and military strikes has again given CNN a ratings boost. The network achieved its highest rating of the year Thursday, attracting 1.7 million homes.

Despite all their valuable prime-time real estate thanks to multiple editions of programs such as “Dateline NBC” and “20/20,” because of the ever-present alternative provided by news channels the major networks risk having their reports appear instantly dated--especially on the West Coast, where newsmagazines usually air on a three-hour delay.

Because of the rapidly changing nature of events in Washington and Iraq, the networks have sought to provide updated West Coast editions of some programs this week, such as “The CBS Evening News,” “ABC World News Tonight” and “Good Morning America.” On the flip side, CBS aired a delayed report Wednesday that any channel-surfer could see trailed several hours behind the live pictures being shown concurrently on CNN and other news channels.

“My view is in a breaking-news situation, you don’t replay a 3-hour-old show,” CNN’s Jordan said. “It’s real, it’s live, and you have to do it in real time.”

ABC’s “20/20” did decide to postpone taped pieces scheduled for Friday and instead provide coverage of the House of Representatives debate on impeaching President Clinton, as well as the action in Iraq.

While not able to equal the volume on the all-news channels, ABC’s Murphy said the network feels “a certain obligation to our viewers to be as competitive as any news organization in getting [information] on the air and putting it in context.”