TV officials defend aggressive coverage

Local television news officials defended last night their wall-to-wall coverage of the mysterious devices story, despite critics who contended that the stations overplayed the news and generated anxiety across the city.

In a post-9/11 world, "we absolutely did the right thing," Bill Fine, general manager of WCVB-TV (Channel 5), said yesterday. "There is nothing that said this wasn't a diversion or a prelude to something bigger. . . . Cars were not running on Storrow Drive. Trains were not running. . . . This paralyzed the city for the whole day."

According to Fine, Channel 5 began coverage about 9 a.m. when it heard that Interstate 93 was closed. The station broke into regular programming throughout the day with updates and switched to continuous coverage from about 2:20 through 6:30 p.m.

Other local stations were similarly aggressive, interrupting standard programming with developments. And their executives also felt they made the right call.

"This is one of those days, for any newsroom, where you have to balance your news-gathering decisions with your ethics," said WBZ-TV (Channel 4) station manager Angie Kucharski, whose station began its reports about 9 a.m. "We stepped back and said, '. . . What will give viewers perspective and not create hysteria?' "

Bob Zelnick, a journalism professor at Boston University and a former ABC News correspondent, said the stations were right to aggressively cover the events all day. "It's a very big story when a [metropolitan] area is brought to its knees," he said.

But Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, regretted that some stations speculated about bombs and terrorism.

"Ted Koppel once told me that turning a camera on an event is not journalism; it's technology," Rosenstiel said from Washington D.C., where he was monitoring the story. "Journalism means making decisions and edits. If you have no evidence that anything bad has happened . . . you shouldn't run the worst-case scenario."

Nationally, CNN was also all over the story. Only late in the day did the network report, along with other media outlets, that the mysterious devices were advertisements for a television show that airs on the Cartoon Network, which, like CNN, is owned by Turner Broadcasting System Inc.

Shirley Powell, a spokeswoman for Turner, said CNN was informed "as soon as we found out it was us." The marketing campaign had been in the works for weeks, she said, and CNN kept referring to the boxes as packages. "Nobody made the connection," she said.

Mike Carson, general manager for WHDH-TV, Channel 7, said in a statement: "It was one of those stories that unfolded moment by moment. You have to cover it the best way you can. We did that."

The news director for WFXT-TV (Channel 25) could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Charlie Kravetz, the station manager and vice president of news at NECN, said his station chose not to stay with the story continuously.

"There really was not much to say," he said. "We reported it and kept breaking in with updates. I remember standing in the newsroom at 3:15 and saying: 'There is nothing to say to advance the story. When there is, we will.' . . . I think we had the right balance."

While news stations are often criticized for focusing on crises as a ratings grab that translates into revenue, Fine said that Channel 5 chose not to run commercials as it kept up steady coverage late in the day.

But Fine agreed with those who were angry at the story's outcome. "If the governor wants to sue Turner," Fine said, "I will join them in the suit."

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com.