NBC - TV NEWS ANCHORS SEE ROCKETS' GLARE

TV NEWS ANCHORS SEE ROCKETS' GLARE

NBC News anchor Brian Williams and Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith were forced to flee to safety Tuesday as rockets dropped perilously close to where they were covering the latest hostilities in the Middle East. Williams reported on his experiences on a new daily video blog that was introduced on the MSNBC website on Monday. While TV news executives have been criticized for "parachuting" star anchors to international hot spots while closing up important foreign bureaus and reducing the number of full-time correspondents overseas, Paul Slavin, senior vice president of ABC News said Tuesday that it was "absolutely critical" that anchors go to where the action is. In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Slavin said, "When you send an anchor, you focus not only the program, but the entire news division, on an important issue. And there is no more important an issue now than what's going on in Israel and Lebanon, because this is all wrapped up in our broader Middle Eastern policies. ... For Charlie to go and cover this firsthand not only informs today's broadcast, but it will inform his reporting and his program in months to come." Slavin also told the newspaper that he's keeping closer tabs on where Gibson is going than he did when Bob Woodruff went to Iraq (and was subsequently wounded). "We discuss what stories [Gibson] plans to cover," Slavin said, "and we discuss the level of risk and how he's going to transit. ... It is probably a bit more bureaucratic than it used to be."

19/07/2006