The problems with live news coverage.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe

It started with regularity in the 1970s. New portable cameras made it possible to broadcast almost any event or non-event live. The ability to telecast any story while it is breaking changed the ground rules of what television news-is and how it is to be presented. In the 1980s and 1990s, the dominance of live coverage transferred editorial power from experienced producers and writers in the newsroom to less experienced reporters and producers in the field. It further reduced TV news reports and news broadcasts to quicker, simplistic, one-dimensional, and superficial coverage.

More than 20 years ago, several TV journalists came up with a list of problems dealing with the possibility of more and more live coverage of news. The list seems even more relevant today than it was then. Here were some of the concerns:

There is a danger of giving viewers misinformation and rumor. Live accounts often may be inaccurate. The reporter gives the viewer the best information he or she can at the moment and this account frequently is filled with misinformation, distortion, and inaccuracy. It's the nature of the beast. The drama of the moment is substituted for good, thorough reporting. This is not deliberate deception--just honest, unavoidable errors, As one colleague put it, "In a running account of a story, there will always be misinformation no matter how hard the reporter works. Errors are understandable, but I'm afraid not excusable. The fact that it is a live report, a running story, does not relieve you of the responsibility of being accurate, no matter how hard it is to live up to that responsibility." News operations are always running the risk of giving out misinformation, but with live news coverage, the risk is greater.

Live news coverage puts an incredible burden on field reporters who are perilously on their own. The hope 20 years ago was that a new breed of reporter would be developed, one who doesn't pop off and ad-lib just to fill in the blank spaces, one who is careful of what is said, and one who is so well-informed that he or she can tell a story and organize the facts quickly and accurately. This new kind of reporter has not materialized.

In the past, television reporters got a good deal of help from the inside news staff, a group of journalists who had the experience and the time to reflect on what was being said and how it was being said, on inference and nuance, on completeness and fairness. If a reporter were sloppy or inaccurate...