Bob Woodruff

Good news to report this morning on the condition of Bob Woodruff, co-anchor of ABC's World News Tonight. He and his cameraman are headed back to the U.S. after a short stay in Germany following their serious injuries in an Iraqi roadside bombing incident.
It doesn't seem long ago that Bob and I, local news competitors, were covering the same story on a military unit that was leaving for the first Gulf War. I remember it was one of those "hurry up and wait" stories where we had time on our hands while waiting for our interview. Bob and I came to realize while we were talking that we were the only two TV reporters in Richmond with law degrees. As I recall, that led to some joking about, "So what exactly are we doing out HERE then?"
Bob left the market a couple of years later under different conditions than he probably expected. A reporter at the CBS affiliate, he had accepted an anchor job at the ABC affiliate in the same market, assuring them that his non-compete clause did not apply because of the job differences. The CBS affiliate disagreed and threatened legal action. The ABC affiliate then backed down, and Bob was off the air...but not for long. He made a nice move to Phoenix and, two years later, to ABC's Chicago Bureau.
I never knew Bob well, but I remember liking him a lot during the one story where we had time to talk. Although the full extent of his injuries is not yet public, I'm happy to hear things sound encouraging. His brush with death is a reminder of the risks the networks take when their news stars are put in harm's way. Like it or not, these anchors are franchises -- the face of their respective networks (or local stations for that matter). Placing them in life-threatening situations is cause for careful thought, but so is keeping them insulated from the real world when their job is to act as the eyes on that world for the rest of us.
We pray that, for Bob Woodruff and his family, his latest experience will ultimately be seen as a painfully close call and nothing more.

Shared Heartbreak...and Inspiration (2)

George Widman/AP

One of the most heartbreaking scenes from the recent West Virginia Sago mine tragedy came when one of the deceased miner's widows was interviewed on national TV and said something to the effect of, "We may be stupid, but we still love our families."

As with any tragedy where reporters, photographers, cameras, lights and microphones intrude upon the most personal of moments, there were examples of both the best and worst of human nature on display. The nation (or as much of it as heard the news at that late hour)rejoiced with the families as they celebrated the news that all but one of their loved ones had survived the disaster, and grieved with them when it turned out that all but one had not survived.

Despite some admirable actions on the part of the company, this crisis could have been handled much better, so we saw other more troubling images as well. We heard the family of the miner who was listed as deceased early on talk about how uncomfortable they felt at seeing the other families celebrate and virtually ignore them in their pain. We saw the same families who had praised what they interpreted as divine intervention one moment express doubts about that same loving God the next, once the news turned out to be tragic rather than miraculous.

The explanation, of course, is that we cannot expect people experiencing the most emotional times of their lives to be consistent in their thoughts - to speak in the scripted way we have come to expect in our Hollywoodized culture. These most personal of moments are not always pretty, consistent or fair.

What we can do when planning for a crisis is to anticipate the worst - false information, angry victims, agonizing hours of rumor rather than fact - and plan our reaction to them. We need to always keep in mind that the victims and their families come first. If we doubt the good news, even though we cannot confirm it, we need to tell them. We need to keep the media informed on a regular basis, even if it is just to say we don't know anymore than the last time we updated you. And we need to show the compassion that comes from the knowledge that any of us could be in the same situation as the victims, and that human life always matters more than anything else.

Shared Heartbreak...and Inspiration

George Widman/AP

"In the process of being cautious, we allowed the jubilation to go on longer than it should have." That was how International Coal Group CEO Ben Hatfield summarized an error of judgment that allowed the terrified families of 13 trapped coal miners to celebrate wildly the imminent return of 12 of their loved ones -- alive and apparently well enough to join their families at the local church rather than go immediately to the hospital for evaluation.

Problem was, the company knew for hours that there was a good chance the miners were not alive at all and, in fact, all but one of them were not. The families vented their anger and betrayal to company officials and the media once the truth came out.

Mr. Hatfield explained in a news conference later that he had no way of knowing which report was correct and did not want to add to the confusion until more was known. Usually, a decision not to speculate - to wait for confirmation - is a good one, but not in this case.

The company needed to have a representative standing by with the families for however long it took to ascertain the awful truth, and to report back to company officials at the mine frequently. Once Mr. Hatfield and others were informed that a celebration was underway, complete with church bells tolling to bring sleeping citizens back to the scene, the company needed to take swift action. The families needed to be told, in a gentle but firm way, that there have been mixed reports about the status of their loved ones. That miscommunication is easy when dealing with rescuers wearing oxygen masks far below the surface of the earth. That there is still hope, but nothing more than that yet.

A deadly crisis takes our notoriously shades-of-gray world and reinvents it, briefly, as a black-and-white universe. There are priorities that are unyielding for a time. The first priority is always those who are in harm's way - who may be injured or lose their lives. A close second are the families and loved ones of those victims. Handle the crisis well - make it known that nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important in your world right now than their well-being, and you can be forgiven for not having all the answers right away. But mishandle the crisis - let your good intentions stand in the way of good judgment - and you may not ever regain the trust of those who look to you for help.

More on the West Virginia tragedy later...