Groping for News from Cairo

By Janice Castro

As the world strained to hear, the networks became the story

It was just past noon in Paris. A reporter for Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, was monitoring a routine radio broadcast from Cairo describing a military parade attended by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and other dignitaries.

Suddenly a cacophony of explosions, machine-gun fire and anguished screams jolted him upright in his chair. Then, just as abruptly, the radio fell ominously silent.

Within moments, at around 7:10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, news services around the world were carrying the first bulletins: someone had shot at President Sadat. Little else was known.

In the hours that followed, as wire service, radio, newspaper and television reporters scrambled for more information in the face of a virtual news blackout in Cairo (airports closed, satellite transmissions embargoed, the government silent), a curious thing happened.

The three major U.S. television networks, linked by telephone, satellite and telex to correspondents and other sources around the world, became the world's clearinghouse for rumors and conflicting reports. New scraps were eagerly picked up and reported by radio and TV commentators in other nations.

It was not a role the U.S. networks welcomed. Hard lessons were learned this year about the nerve-wracking process of live coverage, first in Tehran as the hostages were released on Inauguration Day, then at a hotel in Washington, D.C., last March, then in St. Peter's Square only six weeks later. Says CBS News President Bill Leonard: "Four times this year the limits of our capabilities have been strained, where we've been operating very rapidly, sometimes in the dark." At such times, the possibility for error is great. The events unfolding last week were of such magnitude, particularly for the volatile Middle East, that the consequences of error were almost too frightening to consider.

At CBS, former Anchorman Walter Cronkite pitched in, as his successor Dan Rather repeated, "to put this thing into perspective"; NBC Anchor John Chancellor worked side by side with his successor, Tom Brokaw; ABC Good Morning America Correspondent Steve Bell co-anchored with Frank Reynolds, assisted by Ted Koppel, Barbara Walters and David Brinkley, in his debut on ABC . They, in turn, called on government leaders and political analysts for help in sorting out the implications of the tragedy in Cairo.

Among them: Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Ashraf Ghorbal, former Presidents Ford and Carter, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance, and former Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman.

No one knew with any certainty for more than three hours just what President Sadat's condition was or who had attacked him. White House sources at first characterized Sadat's injuries as "not life threatening." As late as 9:57 a.m. E.D.T., former U.S. President Jimmy Carter assured CBS's Rather over a telephone hookup from Plains, Ga., that his diplomatic sources in Cairo had just told him "President Sadat will be all right."

Thus Rather was visibly taken aback when, at 10:26 a.m. E.D.T., Cairo Bureau Manager Scotti Williston told him by phone, on the air, that her sources were reporting "that the President has passed away." Wary of repeating the egregious blunder that all three networks made in reporting the death of Reagan Press Secretary James Brady on the day the President was shot last March, an agitated Rather kept pressing Williston, hard. Were her sources reliable? They were, said the imperturbable Williston, who, before her assignment to Cairo in 1979, was CBS News' deputy foreign editor. No official word was yet available, said she, but both her sources were solid CBS contacts in Cairo: "I believe it to be true."

Sticking to her story, Williston was well ahead of everyone else with the report that Sadat had died. About ten minutes later, as an increasing number of sources around the world began to relay the same word, it was Tom Brokaw's turn to press Correspondent Art Kent on whether he had heard the news "from an official spokesman, or are we all beginning to repeat each other?" Over at ABC, Frank Reynolds explained: "We are obliged to give you information that may turn out to be inaccurate." At moments, the frustration and uncertainty swamped their syntax. Pointing out a prostrate figure in the first still photograph of the shooting at 12:02 p.m. E.D.T., CBS's Rather said, "It is believed, reportedly, supposedly, allegedly, President Sadat in the lower right hand corner of this photograph." Finally, Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak in a statement at about 2 p.m. officially confirmed the news of Sadat's death. Shortly before 3 p.m., the shocking images of the carnage captured by ABC Cameraman Fabrice Moussos were transmitted by satellite on all three networks and made available to 120 foreign networks. At first, however, the film was erroneously attributed to Egyptian television, which in fact had blacked out its coverage as soon as the shooting started.

As dozens of world leaders converged on Cairo for the Egyptian President's funeral in the following days, they were joined by some 800 journalists, who set about documenting the still touchy aftermath of the assassination. But Cronkite and CBS held the edge a bit longer, delivering the first film interview with Sadat's successor, Mubarak. It was a masterly portrait of a strong adjutant struggling to fill the shoes of a giant, a mentor Mubarak admitted he is still unable to believe has left him. Many viewers felt the same way. --By Janice Castro. Reported by Janice C Simpson/New York

With reporting by Janice C Simpson/New York

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