IT’S been a dirty, bloody war in Iraq and it was also the kind of experience that helps add a charge to the resumes of TV correspondents who may one day make the transition into network anchors.
For Dan Rather it was the assassination of JFK and the Vietnam war, Peter Jennings also cut his teeth covering Vietnam and for Tom Brokaw it was the home-front battle during Watergate.
All three were critical correspondents who rose to prominence during major news events that built their credibility as they gathered news.
Big news events – war, corruption, especially Sept. 11 – turn ordinary news watchers into voracious news junkies, and it’s the correspondents who are associated with those events who go on to become stars.
Of the major networks, only NBC has designated an heir apparent to Brokaw: MSNBC anchor Brian Williams is expected to take over “Nightly News” when Brokaw steps aside after the 2004 Presidential election.
ABC has yet to designate a replacement for Jennings, who locked up a new three-year deal with the network beginning next fall.
While CBS, which has Rather locked up through 2006 – although he could leave the “Evening News” at some point to work for all or one of the network’s news magazines – has been grooming both Scott Pelley and John Roberts for the job.
Williams, Pelley and Roberts were sent to Iraq to cover the war and were frequently seen on TV decked out in sand-colored fatigues and flak jackets, the requisite apparel of modern war correspondents.
“Professionally, they had to be there,” says an industry source.
“The thing about pivotal news events these days – whether it’s the election, or the Columbia tragedy or this conflict in Iraq – is that there are more journalists involved with covering these stories than ever before. There’s more competition. It’s about getting the story and being credible.”
It was also about bringing viewers the most vivid, compelling and instantaneous coverage in the history of war.
But it was, if it’s possible to have such a thing, a good war for Williams, Pelley and Roberts.
Williams and Pelley chose not to join the Military’s embed program, but all three traveled throughout the war-torn region.
Williams, opted not to embed so he could continue to anchor MSNBC’s evening news broadcast. However, he spent three days in the middle of the Iraqi desert after a small armada of Chinook helicopters he had decided to travel with came under fire and was forced to set down just hours before a massive sandstorm hit.
John Roberts made the trip to Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division and after weeks of combat and travel, returned to the U.S. last week.
CBS’ Pelley is still in Iraq reporting.
