Sunday, January 03, 2010
From the Newsroom: Hostage coverage challenges journalists, deadlines
From the newsroom
Michael Stowe, managing editor
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The phone rang at 10:47 p.m., minutes before our final copy deadline for the Christmas Eve paper.
I had just finished editing our latest story on the tense hostage standoff at the Wytheville post office.
We had been reporting the story since it broke -- more than eight hours earlier -- and I was frustrated that we would have to go to press without knowing if the hostage crisis would end before morning.
"We've got movement here," reporter Ralph Berrier Jr. told me from the scene.
An armored police vehicle was moving toward the post office with officers behind it creeping up the street.
I dashed across the newsroom to alert our online editors.
Positioned on a hill, about 300 yards up the street from the post office, Berrier could barely make out what was happening. Photographer Justin Cook's zoom lens gave him a better view -- or what Cook called "the best seat in the house."
Cook told Berrier what he saw and Berrier dictated the scene back to the newsroom.
We reported in real time as the three hostages were released one by one and then Warren "Gator" Taylor rolled his wheelchair out and surrendered to police.
"It was classic, old-school newspaper rewrite," Berrier said, referring to the 1930s era in journalism when reporters commonly called in their stories to the desk to have them written.
It was -- except this time the report from the field was going out to readers in seconds on roanoke.com and Twitter.
File | December
Staff photographer Justin Cook captured this photo of a suspect surrendering at the Wytheville post office on Dec. 23.
It was a tense -- and exhilarating -- half an hour.
No time to think about it though. Deadline for the print newspaper loomed.
The story was quickly recast with the details from Berrier at the top and shipped to the layout editors.
Now we just needed the pictures from Cook.
Where were they?
It had been a tough night for Cook -- and photographer Matt Gentry who had been first on the scene along with reporter Anna Mallory.
Cold weather and camera batteries don't mix well. Low temperatures sap battery power and can quickly turn a camera into an oversized paperweight.
That was Cook's concern as he worked in the freezing temperatures.
"My biggest worry wasn't whether or not I was going to get the picture," Cook said.
He knew he was in a good spot -- on the hill with his Canon 5D on a tripod outfitted with a 400 millimeter zoom lens and 2x converter.
"It was making sure my camera wasn't going to fail ... battling the elements," Cook said.
His batteries had died on him several times that night -- and at one point the shutter wasn't firing correctly because of the low temperatures -- forcing Cook to leave his car running to keep his spare gear warm.
His batteries held up through the surrender, and Cook knew he had compelling images in his camera.
Then he discovered the wireless card on his computer wasn't working. He had no Internet connection and no way to send the pictures.
And he was already past deadline.
He turned to one of the local residents who had come out to watch the scene -- someone Gentry had befriended earlier in the night -- and asked if she had wireless at her apartment.
Sharon (Cook didn't get her last name) quickly gave him a ride to her home where he was able to e-mail the photos to the news desk.
Crisis averted.
Cook's shot of Taylor, arms raised as a state police robot examines him, anchored our standoff coverage in the Christmas Eve paper.
It was an extraordinary photo not just because it captured the peaceful end of the hostage but because the obstacles Cook overcame to send get it.
"It was all kind of crazy," Cook told me.
Indeed.
