Again on TV, riveting scenes and gathering of grief

By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, 2/2/2003

or the second time in a week, President Bush delivered a somber message to a riveted national television audience yesterday.

This time, the vehicle was not a State of the Union address steeling Americans for a possible showdown with Iraq. Instead, for a few short minutes, the president eulogized the seven space shuttle astronauts, summoning up the words of the Prophet Isaiah as he lamented a day of ''terrible news.''

On NBC, a subdued anchor Brian Williams pointedly noted how the president ''invoked religion and a higher power.'' CNN anchor Judy Woodruff described the president's role as ''consoler in chief.''

Even before NASA and the president acknowledged that the shuttle was lost, TV viewers knew there could be no survivors. Local TV cameramen in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as amateurs who follow shuttle flights, caught the dramatic last moments of Columbia on video: a thin white contrail breaking apart against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.

Not only did the disaster provide the same kind of dramatic visual evidence of tragedy as the Challenger mission of 17 years ago, it had the same kind of visceral impact on the nation. The clearest evidence of that was the men in the anchor chairs on what otherwise would have been a routine winter Saturday afternoon of televised basketball and skiing. (CBS finally broke off coverage at 4 p.m. to go to the Bob Hope Classic Golf Tournament.)

Full coverage of the crash  TODAY'S GLOBE NASA e-mails show worry over wing  PROFILES The crew of shuttle Columbia  GRAPHICS Shuttle Columbia statistics Columbia's final approach Map of shuttle debris area How a shuttle returns to Earth Debris strikes Columbia Keeping heat outside shuttle Focus on shuttle tiles Trouble in the left wing The private sector in space Spinoffs from space  MORE COVERAGE Deadly accidents in space program Timeline of Columbia's last flight Glossary of space shuttle terms  REALVIDEO | NECN.com | Help with video | Latest in the investigation Sen. Kennedy reacts to tragedy The future of shuttle program Searching for debris in Texas Debris leads to hospitalization John Glenn on the tragedy Radar captures falling debris NASA lowers flag to half-staff Witnesses heard a 'big bang' Profiles of the Columbia crew NASA official: 'A tragic day' Video clips require RealPlayer and Windows 98 or higher.  PHOTO GALLERIES Memorials to the astronauts Images from the mission  ON THE WEB Space shuttle Columbia About the mission (Needs Flash) Space shuttle reference manual Shuttle facts, activities, and history How the space shuttle lands Virtual tour of shuttle Columbia. Background on the Columbia NASA www.nasa.gov Space Shuttle Encyclopedia (unofficial site) www.shuttle.org  THE CHALLENGER DISASTER From the Globe archives: Challenger explodes Profiles of crew members Final words of crew Profile of Christa McAuliffe

Handling wall-to-wall coverage of major breaking stories has become almost second nature to the 24-hour cable networks like Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN. But reprising the role they played in the days after Sept. 11, the major broadcast news shows functioned as a national hearth for a stunned populace yesterday, as anchors scrambled to their posts when the news broke shortly after 9 a.m.

CBS's Dan Rather was in his chair shortly before 10:30. ABC's Peter Jennings rushed to the network to go on the air around 11. NBC's weekend version of the ''Today'' show had just finished with a skating segment when staff members hustled back to the studio to handle the story. While Tom Brokaw was making his way back to NBC, Williams anchored the coverage starting at about noon.

Network officials said yesterday's decision to go with extended coverage was a no-brainer. ''There is no question, this is a story that certainly impacts the psyche of all Americans,'' said ABC's Jeffrey Schneider. ''It's a national tragedy,'' added Sandy Genelius of CBS.

There was plenty of official business to cover in the hours after the tragedy yesterday, including two afternoon NASA briefings and the president's remarks. In addition, correspondents and anchors moved briskly to allay fears - uppermost in many Americans' minds these days - that the tragedy could have been terrorist-related.

Yet, as often happens in today's interconnected, high-tech universe, much of the reporting was done not by journalists, but by ordinary citizens: witnesses, video camera owners, and law-enforcement officials. In midafternoon, CBS interviewed Raymond Cervantes, a video camera ''hobbyist'' who captured the shuttle's breakup over Texas and described it as ''an unbelievable fireball.''

Thomas Kerss, the sheriff of Nacogdoches, Texas, told NBC what he knew about conditions on the ground where debris was landing. Throughout the day, on-the-scene observers provided insight and details.

But the most important and eloquent story line conveyed by yesterday's coverage was the numbing grief that enveloped a cross section of American society.

Interviewed on CNN, a young child visiting Washington's Air and Space Museum said, ''I think it's a terrible loss.'' Barely choking back tears at the 3:30 news conference, NASA's chief flight director, Milt Heflin, said simply: ''This is a bad day.'' And talking to Jennings, a former astronaut, Gene Cernan, was equally emotional as he tried to bring some perspective to the dangers of disasters in space.

''When it happens, [it] sort of hits us in the gut,'' he said.

This story ran on page A26 of the Boston Globe on 2/2/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.