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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-07990 to 363-07993.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-07990 to 363-07993
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Title
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Article about TV News at the start of the Vietnam War
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Description
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Keever's title: "U.S. Crews' Struggle to give Americans First TV War Coverage", Article draft about TV News at the start of the Vietnam War, for Newsweek Magazine
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Bev Deepe
101 Cong Ly
Saigon
س
(As CCCBBBSSS and NBC
correspondents from Hong Kong are now in
Saigoncovering developments here, Newsweeek Hong Kong forwarded your
requested tv cover query).
Bernard Kalkx Kalb, CBS correspondent for Southeast Asia and
India, pointed the number of defections frmmmmm of newspaper reporters
to television correspondents-examples being Bob Kleiman, formerly of
US News and World Report now with CBS Stan Levy, formerly with New York Times
and Now CBS Washington; Bill Lawerence (check spelling) formerly of
New York Times and now with CBS. (This Bill Lawerence is known as
"Political" Bill as distinct from "Atomic" Bill Lawerence,
editor of New York Times.
the science
Bernard Kalb is was also a max New York Times correspondent from
1946 to 1962, reporting in South East Asia, but joined CBS last year.
"I love teletions," television," Kalb said. "I like the medium.
You can't match the excitement of turning a camera on a story and picking up
a narrative that provides a framework for the camera.
**
(More)
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Deepe--2
"There's alot of insecurity in ir tv-radio reporting," Kalb
said. "We've always had a newspaper trad new newspapering tradition.
alot of announcers simply re-wrote the wire services rather than becoming
newscasters. But the fact that we (television) are reaching out for
newspeople in stead of matein matinee idols is significant."
He said alot of newspaper correspondents in New York left
newspaper work for television after the newspaper strike.
A tall, dark-headed correspondent, Kalb "followed in the footsteps
They jokingly
of his younger brother, Marvin," who is now in CBS also.
call themselves "The Brothers Kalb. "
The television-adio correspondents in South East Asia inherit a
bundle of problems in their work. Merle Severn, CBS cameraman for Kalb,
carries 5 miles of film with him when he's traveling on a hot story.
"On an active running sotr story, that will last us about two weeks,"
Severn said. "Ed "We have to carry about 800 pounds of equipment with us
whenever we travel--it costs more for excess luggage payments that it does
to pay for bringing Kalb and myself in to cover a story. CBS throughout
luggage
the world must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on excess
payments throughout the world. "
Severn said that covering riots and developments in Saigon was one
"The police once
of the toughest assignments he's had in the free world.
took our car, two drivers animadim at gunpoint and all our equipment for
thirty hours. They (Vietnese po Vietnamese police)
wanted all our film.
So I gave them 2000 feet of unexposed film and 800 feet that they could have
exposed in the magazines. Meanwhile,
country through devious devious ways.
I was shipping the real film out of the
The censorship here takes a week for them
to development it and approve it." (More)
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Deepe-3
"These Saigon riots are the hardest," Severn continued. "We had to
hide the camera and shoot from the hip. All riots are hard to handle, but here
the police and the military restrictions makes saigon the hardest
spot
now. I've covered military operations in Viet Nam and have been shot at more
than in World War II. But this is harder." (He was a sergeant in the Pacific).
James Robinson, NBC correspondent for South East Asia, agreed that
riot stories were hard to cover, but said the Saigon riots "were placid"
compared with those he'd covered in the Malayan emergency.
"Riots are the worst," Robinson said. * "They arethe most
frightening. You don't know whos who's the good guys and the bad guys.
The correspondent is always the target. The authorities want to get you for
identifying their methods of brutality and the people want to get you because
you might identify them to the authorities."
Boyish-looking Robinson has covered six conflicts: Korea, the
Indo-china war against the French, Laos fighting, Malayan emergency,
the curring V current Viet Nam war and rebellions in Indonesia.
In the summer of 1950, Robinson was publisher and editor of the
Bangkok (Thailand) Tribune, an English language paper. He was sent to
Korea to cover Thai troops under United Nations Command, and soon joined
NBC. He once was invading the Indonesian Celebes Islands with some
rebels who did not know how to navigate their ship; they mutinied and dumped
Robinson into a canoe. Z
Robinson was expelled from Viet Nam last fall; after six months of
negotiations between Vietnamese government and U. S. State Department, he was
re-admitted in mid-July this year. During hot sultry day covering Buddhist
memorial service,
Robinson got sunstroke and fell off six-foot wall.
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Deepe-4
He broke his arm, which he still wears swaddled in an orange
bandana bandanna.
"I spend fifty percent of my time on logistics,"
Robinson said.
"People in the states and Europe have no idea of how hard it is--getting
your equipment in and moved around, fighting for radio circuits etc."
Kalb recalled two-three months ago that CBS equipment was carried
on hacks of 25 Papuan porters through the interior of New Guinea.
(Kalb and Robinson said publicity departments of their respective
stations have shots of them in these difficult settings--like in New Guinea.)
endit
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Date
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1963, Aug.
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Mass media and the war; Cold War on television; Television broadcasting of news; War correspondents
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B2, F4
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
