The police line kept reporters and photographers well back from the murder scene. No one in authority was talking. There wasn’t much to see. But one reporter managed to break some news: Officials believed there was a connection between this killing and a series of prostitute murders already under investigation. How did he find that out?
CBS reporter Byron Pitts, then at WSB-TV in Atlanta, used a secret weapon he always keeps in his work bag-a small pair of binoculars. Even from a distance, Pitts was able to identify a police commander at the crime scene who was in charge of the prostitute murders. Then all it took was a phone call to confirm the suspected connection.
For years, television and radio reporters have used their work bags as portable offices, loaded with the tools of their trade. Almost everyone carries the basics-notebook, pens, IFB, a tape recorder or cell phone. But lurking in some reporters’ bags are less common items that have proved to be indispensable on the job.
Nancy Amons, a special projects reporter at WSMV-TV in Nashville, keeps a couple of blank computer diskettes in her bag. When she spies a useful spreadsheet or database while on assignment, she asks for a copy. “They usually say, ‘Sure,’ if you make it easy for them,” she says. “Otherwise, they want to charge you and it takes more time.” Amons uncovered a dramatic decline in the quality of care at a local hospital by getting a state official to save copies of annual staffing reports on one of her handy disks. “No one had ever compared the numbers over time,” she says. “When I took the data back to the station, I found the pattern.”
Investigative reporter Geoff Greenwood at KCCI-TV in Des Moines carries two booklets that he’s found to be good ammunition against officials trying to exclude the news media. One contains the state law covering cameras in the courts. The other lists exemptions to Iowa’s open records and meetings laws. “If someone claims their records are not public, I call their bluff by handing them my booklet and I ask them to show me the exemption,” Greenwood says. That’s how he got the name of a suspect detained but not charged for joking about having a bomb in his luggage at the Des Moines airport. The airport claimed its administrative records were confidential, but Greenwood’s booklet pried them loose. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has open records information for each state available free on its Website (http://www.rcfp.org/tapping/index.cgi).
Reporting on an overturned tanker truck, Ike Pigott of WBMA-TV in Birmingham, Ala., reached into his bag for the emergency response guidebook he always carries. The four-digit code on the tanker told him what was inside, how hazardous it was and how far away people should stay. “By consulting the guide, we were able to relay more accurate information about what (emergency) crews were doing, as well as how extensive the evacuation was going to be.” The booklet from the US, Canadian and Mexican Departments of Transportation is available from local emergency management offices or can be downloaded free from the Internet (http://hazmat.dot.gov/pubs/erg/gydebook.htm).
Steve Daniels of Dateline NBC carries a calculator wherever he goes. “I use it to check out what sources are telling me,” he says. He has also found it essential for translating information into terms familiar to viewers. Once, covering a plane crash, he learned how many tons of fuel the aircraft had on board. Out came the calculator, and into the script went the number of gallons of fuel, a measurement anyone could understand.
Look in the bag Carla Alston carries as a reporter at KUSA-TV in Denver and hiding between the make-up and the IFB you’ll spot a pocket dictionary. “I use it when I’m writing in the field and stuck for a word,” she says. “I also use it to look up unfamiliar terms I hear people use. It’s saved me more than once.”
Sharon Parker of WFLA Radio in Tampa carries something in her bag that helps her keep tabs on the competition-“a teeny tiny TV.” She uses it in the field to see what others are reporting. “Sometimes they’ll talk to someone I didn’t get to,” she says. “Or they may get a visual I was unable to see.” Parker says her portable set has been useful at hostage situations and on other breaking stories that draw multiple television crews to a scene she’s covering all alone.
David Ropiek of WCVB-TV in Boston carries 20 years worth of stuff in his bag. It’s all in his phone book-hundreds of collected home numbers, direct lines, and inside extensions. He updates it every day, transferring useful numbers (“the kind you can’t look up”) from his expendable notepad to his permanent book. And Ropiek says the book is a good source of story ideas when things are slow. “Every few months, I page through the list of numbers looking for people to call to see what’s up,” he says.
Boyd Huppert’s book is a calendar where he notes the date of every story he covers and its tape number in the KARE-TV archives. “I use it at least once a week,” he says. “It buys me time. If I can call in and tell someone where to find the file tape, it can be waiting for me when I get back to the station.” Huppert also uses the calendar information to add background to live shots on continuing stories.
When CNN Radio’s John Bisney heads out on assignment, he’s a walking radio station. His bag is crammed with a tape recorder, microphone, adapters and connectors, wire cutters, screwdrivers, extra batteries, and a light-weight, customized telephone through which he can feed tape. And there’s one more item any reporter could use-a small flashlight. “It’s great for taking notes outside at night, or when you’re covering a hurricane and there’s no power,” he says.
Considering the stress on broadcast reporters, it may be no surprise that many of them carry one more thing-a collection of over-the-counter medications including headache remedies and antacids. “I’ve found over the years that I can tap dance around almost any situation in the field,” says Paul Skolnick of Thunder & Lightning News Service, “except my own health.” He says his over-the-shoulder pharmacy costs a pittance but pays off on almost every assignment. When you carry your office with you in a bag, it only makes sense to be prepared for an aching back.
(This article was originally published in RTNDA Communicator magazine, October 1998)
