11.7.99
The quest for 'the money shot'
A week in the life of a network news crew

By GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

The tone went out from the Fox News headquarters in New York at 5:45 a.m. last Sunday, activating beepers in New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Rick Leventhal, a veteran news correspondent, heard his beeper chirp from a night stand in his house on Long Island. He called the desk and heard the news: an EgyptAir flight had disappeared from radar screens over the ocean. How soon could he get on the story?

Leventhal, a broad-shouldered 39-year-old with black, close-cropped hair, drove his girlfriend back to New York City. Then he stopped at his apartment in the city to pick up the tools of his trade: a cell phone, a reporter's notebook, and a garment bag with his cosmetics and five tailored suits.

At 10:59 a.m., Leventhal was aboard a jet bound for T.F. Green Airport. On the ground, satellite trucks rolled from New York and Chicago; teams of cameramen, soundmen, and field producers descended on Rhode Island so that by day's end, Fox News had 28 people in Newport.

The Fox crew was just one of several TV news squadrons that swarmed over Quonset Point, Goat Island, and the Newport Navy Base this week, providing an insight into how the major cable and network news stations deliver information of a breaking news story.

Leventhal sent his first live report on the plane crash at 4 p.m. Sunday; standing outside the Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Leventhal gave viewers the basics: the plane, a Boeing 767, crashed about 60 miles south of Nantucket; 217 people were aboard; it was cruising at 33,000 feet when it disappeared.

On Monday, the news desk assigned Leventhal's team to Quonset Point, where the National Transportation Safety Board established its headquarters for investigating the crash. Quonset Point looked like a prime spot for a news correspondent to hang out: the NTSB headquarters was there, and the U.S. Coast Guard was delivering plane wreckage and at least one body.

Leventhal arrived at Quonset Point hoping to find ``the money shot'' -- footage of ships unloading wreckage. At first, it looked like the shot wasn't there: military police placed the piers off-limits, so cameras stationed at Quonset Point could not get a good view of the waterfront.

But by Tuesday, Leventhal discovered a prime spot for shooting the Quonset waterfront: the second story of the Quonset O Club, a banquet facility housed in the old Officers Club. The problem was, camera crews from ABC and NBC had already staked out the spot; they were paying the O Club $1,800 a day to shoot from a room on the second floor.

``I told them, `I want in,' '' Leventhal recalled. ``And they said, `Fine, we'll split the costs,' '' $600 a piece.

Hours after Leventhal's team set up a camera in the O Club, state police arrived and told all three camera crews they had to leave. ``I had a little battle with the police on this,'' Rosenthal said. ``They said, `Well, the owner has said you have to leave.' Well, we had an agreement with the owner. But evidently we had no choice, because the police put a little pressure on the owner.''

Paul Storti, who owns the O Club, confirmed Leventhal's account. ``Apparently, the state police were told by the NTSB that they didn't want (news crews) taking pictures,'' Storti said. ``So, naturally, I did what the police asked me to do. It did cost me, but sometime the money isn't the only issue. If (NTSB agents) feel as though that's something unethical for the families, well then, I do side with them.''

Leventhal said that Fox had no plans to broadcast images of body parts or anything that would be disturbing to the families of the crash victims. ``We go to great lengths not to show anything like that,'' Leventhal said. ``I think viewers want to see the fuselage if they recover it. I think they want to see how these people do their jobs.

``But they (the NTSB) want control. They want to control what pictures and information is released. It's in my nature to push for something a little extra, and it is frustrating when officials will try and stop me from doing my job.''

Fresh film footage is the lifeblood of a 24-hour news station such as Fox's news channel. The news channel broadcasts news around the clock, and it is a challenge for its news correspondents to come up with something new every hour. With Quonset Point essentially closed to cameramen, Leventhal found it difficult to freshen his broadcasts.

``If we could get to the crash site, we would all be there,'' Leventhal said. ``It's restricted. We do what we can. You go where you can and talk to who will talk to you.''

BY THURSDAY, the Fox news desk decides that the best place to put Leventhal is the official news briefing center in a gymnasium overlooking the mothballed aircraft carriers at the Newport Navy base.

Inside the gym, hundreds of print and TV reporters from around the world wait for federal officials to emerge with video or scraps of information to feed the 24-hour news cycle. Leventhal's not scheduled to do a live shot or ``hit'' until 3:10 p.m.; but a colleague, Alisyn Camerota, has to do three hits between 9:10 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.

After the 10 o'clock hit, the Coast Guard releases a videotape of an engineer bobbing at sea in a small boat while he listens for the ``pings'' emanating from the wrecked plane's flight data recorders. The data recorders are housed in ``black boxes'' designed to protect the recorders from impact.

Although the video is three days old, Camerota is genuinely pleased to have it. ``What's compelling about this video is it's the first time any of us have ever heard the actual pinging,'' Camerota says, off camera. ``It's interesting because the engineer says, `I think I've got it.' He's not that dramatic, but it's a dramatic moment.''

Camerota does a ``voice-over'' on her 11:10 hit, explaining what the engineer is doing while the video fills the screen. When her 90-second hit ends, her producer says, ``That looked good.''

``I was happy with that one,'' she says.

``So,'' says the producer, Tom Bonifield, ``Should we reprise that next time?''

``I think so,'' Camerota says.

But there will be no need to repeat that segment. After Camerota's third live shot on Thursday, the story of the EgyptAir crash begins to lose its steam. Camerota's 1:30 p.m. hit is bumped by a news conference live from Settle, where the city's police chief is shown talking about the search for a gunman who shot four people.

WHILE LEVENTHAL waits for his live hit at 3:10, he leafs through a stack of newspapers to find out the latest on the EgyptAir crash. ``I soak up whatever news there is,'' he says. ``It's always helpful just to be as informed as I possibly can. Then to take that information I can get from any sources and compile it in a way that's understandable and interesting and accurate.''

While Leventhal preps for his 3:10 hit, officials announce a ``pool opportunity'' for a cameraman to shoot fresh video. First, a Navy escort takes a TV cameraman to the salvage ship Grapple, which is making a test run of the remote operated vehicle (ROV) that it will deploy at sea in an attempt to grasp the black boxes on the ocean floor.

A cameraman shoots the footage, uplinks it to a satellite, then explains what's on the footage to producers and correspondents who cluster around him.

Back in Fox's New York studio, artists have prepared a graphic that simulates Flight 990's flight path as it drops from 33,000 feet to 16,000 feet, then rises to 24,000, sinks to 10,000, and apparently breaks up.

At 3:10, when the New York studio ``tosses off'' to Newport, Leventhal is ready with this live report:

``We are learning about the details of Flight 990's final moments. We have animation that depicts the flight path of the Boeing 767, as reported by the NTSB radar readings'' (the screen cuts to the graphic while Leventhal continues talking in a ``voice-over'') which show the plane climbing 33,000 feet -- then dropping at almost supersonic speed to 16,700 feet in 40 seconds -- then ascending again to 10,000, where the plane apparently broke apart.

``More detail on the fatal flight path should be centered in the plane's black boxes whose distinctive pings have been heard on the ocean floor by mechanical engineers working for the Navy.''

(The screen cuts to the video of the Coast Guard engineer listening for the pings.)

``This video was shot by the Coast Guard Monday. Recovery workers haven't been able to work at sea since Tuesday, because of the rough weather. But the Navy is now testing out its deep drone remote operated vehicle as soon as the weather breaks.''

(Cut to the pool video of the Navy, testing out its remote operated vehicle.)

``The Grapple will head out to the crash site with this ROV, which is equipped with three lights, cameras, including two video cameras, an mechanical arms. The hope is sonar and other equipment can pinpoint the location of the black boxes''

In his ear piece Leventhal hears a voice from New York say, ``Wrap.''