Egypt – What The 24-Hour News Networks Were Made For

Philip M. Stone February 2, 2011 Follow on Twitter

The Egyptian demonstrations were a perfect venue for the international cable news networks to unleash their mighty power of 24-hour continuous coverage, and the world has been well served. But who was best?

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Truth be told they all are doing a very credible job, throwing loads of resources and already in February doing a lot of damage to their annual breaking news budgets. And to say who is doing the best is purely subjective depending on your personal likes and dislikes.

But one thing for sure – if ever there was an event that should put Al Jazeera’s English language service on the US cable map then this it. One would expect Al Jazeera to have plenty of resources in its own back yard, but skeptics might ask whether an Arab-owned network would do a straight reporting job on an Arab neighbor, given the politics of the region, and the answer is a definite yes.  

In fact, the network’s Arabic language service apparently crossed an Egyptian line in the sand for it was Al Jazeera the Egyptian authorities vented their anger at, closing down the Cairo bureau, arresting their journalists for a while, and confiscating their equipment. A true badge of honor! The authorities didn’t do that with the BBC or CNN, for instance, although there were some run-ins with the secret police, so if you judge the effectiveness of a news organization’s coverage by the hostile reaction of the government then Al Jazeera wins the title. At the very least it was getting very close to the bone of the story.

Watching the thoroughly professional English language service, one could understand why the Egyptian government might have got testy. The anchors, especially the Arabic ones based in Doha, were playing it very close. You could tell from their excitement, by the way they phrased their questions, where their loyalties were in this story – with the Egyptian people – and you could visibly see the mental struggle some had in making sure they didn’t overstep the mark. But it was, overall, good stuff. And as a backhand pat on the back you actually had NBC interviewing the Al Jazeera Washington bureau manager for his analysis.

As for CNN International and the BBC they have their own ways of doing things, but both did well. CNN seemed to catch on before the BBC the seriousness of what was going on and went to continuous, no commercials, coverage fairly quickly whereas on the BBC at the beginning there were the usual breaks. And CNN anchors in Atlanta, particularly Jim Clancy and Jonathan Mann, did sterling work. But that leads to a criticism of CNN we have made before on such stories – why does it insist on anchoring from Atlanta, London, Abu Dhabi or Hong Kong instead of on-site? Frankly, it’s a turn-off watching a Hong Kong anchor leading the discussion on what is happening in Egypt.

For domestic viewers CNN finally flew in Anderson Cooper and for international viewers Hala Gorani, an American born to Syrian parents who is anchor of the main international news hour program, I-Desk. Her anchor presence made a big positive difference although one would really love to bang CNN producer heads as on Tuesday night she presented at 7 p.m. European time the I-Desk and then on the half-hour the network went to a sponsored African Voices show, which they had to interrupt, incidentally, for breaking Egyptian news (from Atlanta). And then at 8 it was breaking news again quoting Al Arabiya that Mubarak would say in a speech he won’t run again, but that was anchored by Michael Holmes in Atlanta – had Hala already taken off for dinner? C’mon – on the day of the biggest people rally in full swing they didn’t  give her the whole hour until Richard Quest’s business program at 8; if they had, as things turned out, she could handled that breaking news on the spot.

The BBC quickly got is excellent anchors on site much faster – Lyse Doucet – probably their best fireman – but also Tim Wilcox who proved his mettle with the Chilean mine disaster, and George Alagiah. And at the top of the hour or on the half hour they anchored the coverage from some balcony and it by and large it went ok – yes some technical problems, the wrong tape being played etc., but good live event coverage.

CNN had good people early on the ground, too. Ivan Watson, Fred Pleitgen and Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman all did very credible jobs with Arabic-speaking Arwa Damon coming later and being able to add to the report by being embedded in the middle of the crowds and understanding what they were saying. Live TV is not always neat and tidy -- as Pleitgen was about to give a live report, for instance, his lights blew a fuse, but again it was all great live TV.

Wedeman was especially effective. He has been based in Cairo for many a year now, a fluent Arabic speaker, and he has a natural style about him that is calm (when noting that thousands of people were out after curfew he nonchalantly mentioned that obviously they hadn’t gotten the memo). “Living” Cairo meant he brought a different perspective to the story – for instance, he disappeared from screens for much of one day and he later explained he had to go home and help protect his neighborhood from marauding looters. Egypt gave a whole new meaning those first few nights to “neighborhood watch.” And then he told of awakening to machine gun fire and desperately phoning his 17-year-old son and telling him to get back home only to be told,  as natural from a 17-year-old, that he was okay and don’t worry Dad.

CNN in particular made very good use of citizen journalists who found ways to get their stuff out even though most comms ands the Internet was down. While some of the video sent in may have been wobbly much was from great vantage points and it was riveting. CNN was good at getting some of those people on the phone for their on-the-spot comments, and it was very good in checking out what social media sites were doing, in English and Arabic.

But for all of that, what really hurts CNN is that it still has not found a replacement for Adriane Amanpour, their great chief international correspondent who after 27 years, ditched the network for ABC years last year. Frankly, she is wasted hosting a Washington-based Sunday morning interview show – her place is on the road and when she anchored from Tucson recently when Congresswoman Giffords was shot, for instance, her ratings shot up.

It’s in her blood to be where the action is and watching her analysis from Cairo for ABC just reinforced how much she is missed on CNN for the network really doesn’t have anyone close to filling her shoes. For ABC she compared, for instance, what is happening in Egypt with what happened in Iran 30 years ago and she spoke with such authority and enthusiasm; her body language clearly showed she knew she was where she had to be. She may do fine Sunday morning studio interviews, but a fireman on the spot is her forté.

In a way you have to feel a bit sorry for CNN – Piers Morgan had Amanpour as a guest on his show Monday night, twice welcoming her back on the network, and he threw her a couple of good questions and her answers were really enlightening. How it must have hurt CNN executives to have had her only for those five minutes instead of always. They should not have let her get away.

See also in ftm Knowledge...

Television News - Bright Lights, Big Coverage

The global reach of television news has never been greater. The digital age has expanded that reach to satellite channels and the Web but it has also forced television news to mature. This ftm Knowledge file shows the gains and the pains. 74 pages PDF (December 2010)

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