Covering the Trade Tower Bombing p.

By: Tony Case

Law enforcement officials say the media got in the way of
investigators, but coverage on the whole gets high marks
THE MEDIA GOT in the way of law enforcement officials investigating
February's World Trade Center bombing, according to New York City Police Chief Raymond Kelly.
"It was interesting, the attempt on the part of the media to solve the case," he related at a recent panel discussion, sponsored by the New York Press Club, that brought together the heads of the city's top agencies to analyze coverage of the disaster.
In a situation of this magnitude, law enforcement groups generally use a handful of investigators who are familiar with the facts of the case as opposed to armies of agents, Kelly said.
But literally hundreds of journalists examined the Trade Center explosion, he noted, which made "the job of doing the investigation difficult because investigators find themselves following leads that the media have uncovered."
Kelly explained that agents must do their work in a "methodical fashion," considering the Constitution and other written law, whereas reporters are not under such constraints.
Because of the "media push" and the number of agencies involved, rumors began to fly early on, he said. "Experts?and not so expert people?were on television right away, making all sorts of claims."
Kelly saw his role amid all the conjecture as that of a "calming influence," attempting to relate the real story through the press.
The police chief praised the media for acting as a "conduit" for his department. They helped to "allay some of the fears out there," he said, and to "get the story out about heroes."
Kelly says he tried to make himself accessible through daily press conferences. "We were not able to put out a lot of information," he related, "but my sense was that the media appreciated having some of the key players all in one spot at the same time."
Kelly called the bombing one of the biggest news stories he has seen in his years in law enforcement, and FBI Assistant Director James Fox, also a panelist, said it provoked the biggest media response he had witnessed in 30 years with the agency.
A couple of reporters who attended the discussion thanked Kelly and his charges for their accessibility, but one woman complained that her press pass?which is issued by the NYPD?does not always permit her to get close to the news.
Kelly admitted that there is a problem with some rookie police officers who impede the work of reporters. "I think it is a training problem for us," he said, "and we're trying to address it". But he was quick to add that newspeople "do not have a right to go into a crime scene" or "a right to disturb a crime scene."
The police department may limit press access in certain situations, he said, and especially where there is an arrest being made.

'A little scary'

Fire Department Commissioner Carlos Rivera said he thought that some of the Trade Center coverage was "a little scary" and suggested that a protocol be instituted whereby representatives of the department "sit down with the media?especially the television media?and act as consultants to tell people the facts, the real facts."
In some cases, reporters "don't really understand what they're saying and sometimes get into an area they don't understand. When you make statements during an emergency of this type,
you're really doing a disservice to the public."
Because of budget constraints, the Fire Department does not have enough people designated to deal with the press, which is "a major problem," Rivera said.
However, the chief said, he knew of no problems his people had with the media people covering the Trade Center.
In the last year, Stanley Brezenoff, executive director of the Port Authority, which manages the World Trade Center, has had to handle one head-ache after another: ships hitting bridges, plane crashes, a hijacking, two major winter storms?and, now, the explosion at the towers.
Through it all, his agency has had an "almost desperate need" to get infor-mation out, he said, and the press has played a major part in the effort, especially in this case.
"The fact that you, the press, had an imperative to learn what happened and what was going to happen and needed to get that out happened to coincide with our need to get information out," he related.
There has been friction between the media and the Port Authority in previous situations, according to Brezenoff, but at the Trade Center, "By and large, the process worked extremely well. The press pretty much had access."
His only criticism was that some reporters "went to excess" and "went beyond bounds of decency" at times.
Brezenoff recognized that there were "lots of pressures on the press to find things out, to get answers to questions that sometimes we were unready?or even a little bit unwilling?to answer . . .
but the coverage was pretty complete. The information got out there."