N.Y. Police Bristle Under Media Deluge

Tensions between law enforcement authorities and journalists covering the aftermath of the terrorist attack in New York mounted Sunday as the size of the press corps descending on the city grew rapidly.

New York Police Department officials said press credentials had been removed from an unspecified number of reporters who had “violated the rules”--either by entering restricted areas or by misrepresenting themselves as rescue workers. One reporter was given a summons for disorderly conduct.

New York police reissued new credentials for all reporters covering the story, and by midday Sunday nearly 1,200 had been distributed.

Some reporters said they encountered more problems with police over the weekend than during the first few days after the World Trade Center attacks when anxiety was higher and press identification badges had not yet been issued.

“It was so chaotic in the first 24 hours that the police couldn’t effectively guard the various entrances,” said Newsweek correspondent Arian Campo-Flores, who spent most of the first day at the scene of the twin towers. “At that point, their priorities were not to keep the press out anyway.”

Police and members of the National Guard confiscated film from media photographers and tourists alike without offering an explanation, said Los Angeles Times reporter Robert Lee Hotz. The police, Hotz said, told him they were trying to “protect the privacy of the families” looking for loved ones.

Some of the increased tension may be the inevitable result of the burgeoning press corps and the eagerness of reporters to gain access to the disaster scene by any means possible. Some of those whose press credentials were revoked were reported to be wearing hard hats and other gear resembling that worn by construction workers.

Many news organizations issued such equipment as a matter of safety, not in an attempt to enable reporters to misrepresent themselves, editors said.

In another confrontation between the news media and the government, CNN was reprimanded Sunday by the Coast Guard for airing what the network labeled “exclusive” dramatic aerial footage of the World Trade Center crash site, taken from a Coast Guard helicopter.

Coast Guard spokesman James McGranachan said CNN was allowed in the helicopter only as part of a general story the network said it was planning for Sunday night on rescue, patrol and port safety activities in the New York Harbor.

When CNN stripped out aerial footage showing the devastation at the World Trade Center and broadcast it at midday Sunday, several news organizations complained. The Coast Guard immediately called Keith McAllister, CNN’s senior vice president and national managing editor, to insist that the network remove the “exclusive” label and offer the images to any other media outlet that asked.

A spokeswoman for CNN said, “It was never our understanding that the pictures obtained could not be made available immediately.” When the Coast Guard asked that the footage be offered to everyone, CNN said, it complied.

Many news organizations have found it difficult to ensure access to the site where emergency workers are toiling around the clock in an effort to rescue any possible survivors.

Sharri Berg, vice president of news operations for Fox News Channel, said “access has definitely been the hardest part of covering this story. The access and access points and permits to enter the site have been inconsistent.”

Faced with the constant possibility that staffers trying to enter the restricted zone would be turned away, any Fox workers who were already inside the limits were told they couldn’t leave until their replacements had arrived.

“We just weren’t sure we could guarantee access,” Berg said.

Some days, police haven’t allowed Fox to bring in a vehicle to its main site and workers have had to ferry everything from food and water to batteries and heavier equipment on foot.

With most of the police force busy elsewhere, reporters for many major news organizations said they spent five or six hours or more standing in line at 1 Police Plaza, where a skeleton staff issued the new credentials.

Members of one German television crew offered other reporters $100 to skip ahead in line so they could go to the scene in time for their next scheduled broadcast.

CNN brought in about 150 employees from out of town to work on the story, bringing its total staff in New York to about 400, including editors, reporters, technicians and camera people. The Los Angeles Times now has 30 reporters and editors in New York working on the story.

The line outside police headquarters stretched about half a football field. Reporters were kept behind portable steel fence barriers. They read, chatted and generally looked bored. Only six were permitted at a time through the revolving glass doors to the lobby. Inside, a team of three women took applications, two passport photos, a letter of introduction and an additional piece of identification before making up the square yellow temporary police passes.

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Staff writers Matea Gold and Ralph Frammolino in New York contributed to this report.