Arthur Hailey: Evening News

Through an aide, Kazazis had already let the Horseshoe know that the Dallas tape was coming in. Now, by phone, Chuck Insen, who was in the broadcast control room, demanded, "How is it?”

Kazazis told the executive producer, "Fantastic! Beautiful! Exactly what you'd expect of Harry and Minh.”

Knowing there wasn't time to view the piece himself, and trusting Kazazis, Insen ordered, "We'll go with it after this commercial. Stand by.”

With less than a minute to go, the tape operator, perspiring in his air-conditioned work space, was continuing to edit, hurriedly combining pictures, commentary and natural sound.

* * *

Insen's command was repeated to the anchorman and a writer seated near him. A lead—in was already prepared and the writer passed the single sheet to Crawford Sloane who skimmed it, quickly changed a word or two, and nodded thanks. A moment later on the anchor's Teleprompter, what were to have been the next segment's opening words switched over to the DFW story. In the broadcast studio as the commercial break neared its conclusion, the stage manager called, "Ten seconds . five . . . four . . . two . . .”

At a hand signal Sloane began, his expression grave. ”Earlier in this broadcast we reported a midair collision near Dallas between a Muskegon Airlines Airbus and a private plane. The private plane crashed There are no survivors. The Airbus, on fire, crash-landed at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport a few minutes ago and there are heavy casualties. On the scene is CBA News correspondent Harry Partridge who has just filed this report.”

Only seconds before had the frantic editing in the One-inch-tape Room been completed. Now, on monitors throughout the building and on millions of TV sets in the Eastern and Midwestern United States and across the Canadian border, a dramatic picture of an approaching, burning Airbus filled the screen and Partridge's voice began, "Pilots in a long-ago war called it comin' in on a wing and a prayer . . .”

The exclusive report and pictures had, as the final item, made the first-feed National Evening News.

* * *

There would be a second feed of the National Evening News immediately after the first. There always was and it would be broadcast—in the East by affiliate stations who did not take the first feed, widely in the Midwest, and most Western stations would record the second feed for broadcast later.

The Partridge report from DFW would, of course, lead the second feed and while competing networks might, by now, have after-the-fact pictures for their second feeds, CBA's while—it happened pictures remained a world exclusive and would be repeated many times in the days to follow.

There were two minutes between the end of the first feed and the beginning of the second and Crawford Sloane used them to telephone Chuck Insen.

”Listen,” Sloane said, "I think we ought to put the Saudi piece back in.”

Insen said sarcastically, "I know you have a lot of pull. Can you arrange an extra five minutes' air time?”

"Don't play games. That piece is important.”

"It's also dull as oil. I say no.”

"Does it matter that I say yes?”

"Sure it matters. Which is why we'll talk about it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here with certain responsibilities.”

"Which include—or ought to—sound judgments about foreign news.”

"We each have our jobs,” Insen said, "and the clock is creeping up on yours. Oh, by the way, you handled the Dallas thing—at both ends—nicely.”

Without answering, Sloane hung up the telephone at the broadcast desk. As an afterthought he told the writer beside him, "Ask someone to get Harry Partridge on the phone at Dallas. I'll talk with him during the next break. I want to congratulate him and the others.”

The stage manager called out, "Fifteen seconds!”

Yes, Sloane decided, there would be a discussion between himself and Insen tomorrow and it would be a showdown. Perhaps Insen had outlived his usefulness and it was time for him to go.

* * *

Chuck Insen was tight-lipped and unsmiling when, after the end of the second feed and before going home, he returned to his office to gather up a dozen magazines for later reading.

Reading, reading, reading, to keep informed on a multitude of fronts, was a news executive producer's burden. Wherever he was and no matter what the hour, Insen felt obliged to reach for a newspaper, a magazine, a newsletter, a nonfiction booksometimes obscure publications in all categories—the way others might reach for a cup of coffee, a handkerchief, a cigarette. Often he awoke in the night and read, or listened to overseas news on short-wave broadcasts. At home, through his personal computer, he had access to the major news wire services and each morning, at 5 A.M., reviewed them all. Driving in to work, he listened to radio news—mainly to CBS whose radio network news he, like many professionals, acknowledged as the finest.

It was, as Insen saw it, this widest possible view of the ingredients of news, and of subjects which interested ordinary people that made his own news judgments superior to those of Crawford Sloane, who thought too often in elitist terms.

Insen had a philosophy about those millions out there who watched the National Evening News. What most viewers wanted, he believed, was the answers to three basic questions: Is the world safe? Are my home and family safe? Did anything happen today that was interesting? Above all else, Insen tried to ensure that the news each evening supplied those answers.

He was sick and tired, Insen thought angrily, of the anchorman's I-know-best, holier-than-thou attitude about news selection, which was why tomorrow the two of them would have a slam-bang confrontation during which Insen would say exactly what he was thinking now, and to hell with consequences.

What were those consequences likely to be? Well, in the past, in any kind of contest between a network news anchorman and his executive producer, the anchor had invariably won, with the producer having to look for work elsewhere. But a lot of things were changing in network news. There was a different climate nowadays, and there could always be a first, with an anchor departing and a producer staying on.

With just that possibility in mind, a few days ago Insen had had an exploratory, strictly confidential phone talk with Harry Partridge. Would Partridge, the executive producer wanted to know, be interested in coming in from the cold, settling down in New York, and becoming anchor of the National Evening News? When he chose to, Harry could radiate authority and would fit the part—as he had demonstrated several times by filling in while Sloane was on vacation.

Partridge's response had been a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, but at least he hadn't said no. Crawf Sloane, of course, knew nothing of that conversation.

Either way, concerning himself and Sloane, Insen was convinced they couldn't go on feuding without some kind of a resolution soon.

It was 7:40 P.M. when Crawford Sloane, driving a Buick Somerset, left the garage at CBA News headquarters. As usual, he was using a CBA car; one was always available as part of his employment contract and he could have a driver if he wanted, though most of the time he didn't. A few minutes later, as he turned onto Fifty-ninth Street from Third Avenue, heading east toward the FDR Drive, he continued thinking about the broadcast just concluded.

At first his thoughts had gone in the direction of Insen, then he decided to put the executive producer out of his mind until tomorrow. Sloane had not the slightest doubt of his ability to cope with Insen and send him on his way—perhaps to a network vice presidency which, despite the high-sounding title, would be a demotion after the National Evening News. It did not occur to Sloane for a moment that the reverse of that process could possibly happen. Had it been suggested fto him, he would undoubtedly have laughed.