The Evening News (45 page)

Other tapes included scenes of devastation and Partridge's on-scene
interviews
.
When they had finished viewing, Iris said, "I think we should begin with
that pile of burning cars, show where those floors of the building were
torn apart, then cut to the dead and injured being carried out
.”

Partridge
agreed and, with more discussion, they crafted a general plan
.
Next, still in the editing booth, Partridge recorded an audio track, the
correspondent's commentary over which pictures would be superimposed
.
Reading from a hastily typed script, he began, "Today, any remaining doubt
that the kidnappers of the Crawford Sloane family are full-fledged
terrorists was savagely dispelled . . . 11
That evening, Partridge's participation in the broadcast would differ from
the two preceding days when, on Thursday, he had anchored the news, then
the following evening been coanchor with Crawford Sloane. Tonight he would
be in his normal role as a correspondent, since CBA's Saturday news had its
own regular anchor person, Teresa Toy, a charming and popular
Chinese-American. Teresa had initially discussed with Partridge and Iris
the general line their report would take. From then on, aware that she was
dealing with two of the network's top professionals, she wisely left them
alone
.
When Partridge finished the audio track, he left to do other things. After
that it took Iris and Watson another three hours to complete the
painstaking editing process, a facet of TV news
seldom understood by viewers who watched the polished end result
.
Externally, Bob Watson seemed an unlikely candidate for the meticulous
,
patient work his editing job required. He was chunky and simian, with
stubby fingers. Though he shaved each morning, by mid
-
afternoon he looked
as if he had a three
day growth of beard. And he chain-smoked fat, pungent
cigars which those obliged to work with
him in his tiny cubicle repeat
edly complained about.
However, he told them, "If I can
't smoke, I don't
think so good, then you get a piss-poor piece
.”

Producers like Iris
Everly suffered the smoke because of Watson's skill
.
The video and sound editing of TV news reports was done in network
headquarters, distant bureaus around the world, or could even be on the
spot near some breaking news scene. The news served up daily by the
networks consisted of all three
.
The standard tools of a TV editor, which Watson faced with the petite
,
strong-willed Iris seated beside him, were two machines, each an
elaborate video recorder with precise controls and meters. Linked to the
recorders and displayed above them was an array of TV monitors and
speakers. Alongside and behind the editor, racks contained dozens of tape
cassettes received from network cameramen, the network's tape library or
affiliate stations
.
The objective was to transfer to a master tape, inserted in the left
recorder, snippets of scenes and sounds from a multitude of other tapes
which were reviewed and rereviewed in the recorder on the right
.
Transferring a scene, seldom more than three seconds long, from a
right-hand tape to the master required artistic and news judgment
,
infinite patience and a watchmaker's delicacy of touch. In the end, the
contents of the master tape would be broadcast on air
.
Watson began putting together the opening sequence already agreed on-the
burning cars and shattered building. With the speed of a mail sorter, he
plucked cassettes from racks, inserted one into the right-hand video
machine and, using fast forward, found the required scene. Dissatisfied
,
he fiddled with rewind, went back and forth, stopped at another shot,
returned to the first
.”
No
,”
he said, "somewhere there's a wide shot from the opposite angle that's better
.”

He switched cassettes, viewed and discarded a second, then chose a third and found what he sought
.”
We should start with this, then go to the first for a closeup
.”

Iris agreed and Watson transferred images and sound to the master tape
.
Dissatisfied with his first and second tries, he wiped them out, then was
happy with the third
.
Sometime later, Iris said, "Let's see that stock shot of a Nissan
.”

They
viewed it for a second time; it showed a new and spotless Nissan passenger
van moving in sunshine down a leafy country lane
.”
Idyllic
,”
she commented
.”
What do you think of using it, then cutting to what's left of the kidnap
van after the explosion
?
”

"It'll work
.”

After several experiments, Watson combined the two with
maximum shock value
.”
Beautiful
!”

Iris murmured
.”
You ain't so dumb yourself, kid
.”

The tape editor picked up his cigar and
emitted a cloud of smoke
.
Ideas and exchanges continued flowing back and forth. The working alliance
of a line producer and tape editor had been described as a duet. It often
was
.
Within the process, though, the possibilities for prejudice and distortion
were infinite. Individuals could be shown doing things out of sequence. A
political candidate, for example, might be seen laughing at the sight of
homeless people when in reality he had wept, the laughter having occurred
earlier and been directed at something else. Using a technique known as
"slipping audio
,”
sound or speech could be transposed from one scene to
another, with only an editor and producer knowing of the change. When such
things were about to be done, a correspondent who happened to be in an
editing room was asked to leave. The correspondent might guess what was in-
tended but prefer not to know
.
Officially such practices were frowned on, though they happened at all
networks
.
Iris had once asked Bob Watson if he ever let his political
prejudices-known to be strongly socialist-influence his editing. He answered, "Sure, at election times if I think I can get away with it. It ain't hard to make someone look good, bad or downright ridiculous, providing the producer goes along
.”

"Don't ever try it with me
,”
Iris had said, "or you'll be in trouble
.”

Watson had touched his forehead in mock salute
.
Now, continuing with the White Plains report, Iris suggested, "Try that
shot with the doughnut effect
.”

"It's better--Oh, goddamn that inconsiderate schmuck
!”

The head of a still
photographer had popped up, ruining the video shot, a reminder of a
perpetual war between press photographers and TV camera crews
.
At one point, pictures on the master tape didn't fit the sound track
.
Watson said, "We need Harry to change some words
.”

"He will. Let's finish our stuff first
.”

Watson chafed over limiting to three seconds the length of several shots
.”
In British TV news they let their shots run five; you can build a mood
that way, use sound to help. Did you know the Brits have a longer attention
span than we do
?
”

"I've heard people say so
.”

"Over here, if you use five-second shots more than occasionally, twenty
million assholes'll get bored and change channels
.”

When they took a few minutes' break for coffee and Watson had a fresh cigar
going, Iris asked him, "How did you get into this
?
”

He chuckled
.”
If I told you, you wouldn't believe
.”

"Try me.,
,
"I lived in Miami, was the night janitor for a local TV station. One of the
young news guys who was on at night saw I was interested and showed me how
the edit machines worked; that was back when they were using film, not
tape. After that, I'd work like hell to get the cleaning work done fast
,
Come three or four in the morning, I'd be in an edit room splicing
yesterday's outtakes they'd thrown away, putting stories together. After
a while I guess I got good
.”

"So what happened
.”

"One time in Miami, while I was still a janitor, there was a race riot
.
It was at night. Everything was going wild, a lot of the black area
,
Liberty City, burning up. The TV station I worked for had called in all
its people, but some had trouble getting through. They didn't have a film
editor, needed one real bad
.”

Iris said, "So you volunteered
.”

"At first, nobody'd believe I could do it. Then they got desperate and
let me try. Right away, my stuff was going on air. They sent some to the
network. The network used it all next day. I stayed on the job ten hours
.
Then the station manager came in and fired me
.”

"Fired you
!”

"As a janitor. Said I was goofing off, didn't have my mind on my work
.”

Watson laughed
.”
Then he hired me as an editor. Haven't looked back
since
.”

"That's a lovely story
,”
Iris said
.”
When I write my book someday, I'll
use it
.”

Soon after, at Watson and Iris's suggestion, Partridge changed some words
of commentary to match the editing and Watson slipped the rerecording in
.
Partridge also recorded a final standup for the piece, facing a camera
on the street outside the CBA News building
.
Since returning from White Plains, Partridge had thought deeply, at
moments agonized, about what he would say. If this had been a normal news
story a summation would have been easy. What made this story different
was Crawford Sloane's involvement. Some of the words he had considered
using would, Partridge knew, bring anguish to Crawf. So should he soften
them, waffle just a little, or be the hard-nosed newsman with a single
standard--objectivity?
In the end, the decision simply happened. Outside the CBA News building
,
with a camera crew waiting and curious pedestrians watching, Partridge
scribbled the sense of what he would say, then, memorizing the notes
,
ad-libbed.

"The events in White
Plains today--a monstrous trag
edy
for that city's innocent victims-is also the worst of news
for my friend and colleague, Crawford Sloane. It means, without dou
bt, that his wife, young son and
father are in the hands of savage, merciless outlaws, their identities and origins unknown. The only thing clear is that whatever their motives, they will stop at nothing to achieve them
.”
The nature and timing of the crime at White Plains also raise a question
which many are now asking: Have the kidnap victims by this time been
removed from the United -States and conveyed to some distant place
,
wherever that may be?
"Harry Partridge, CBA News, New York
..”

Teddy Cooper was wrong. The kidnappers and their victims had not left the United States. However, according to present plans, a few more hours would see them gone
.
For the Medellin group still holed up at Hackensack on Saturday afternoon
,
tension was at a peak, nerves stretched to their limit. The immediate cause
for concern was radio and TV reports about that morning's events at White
Plains
.
Miguel, restless and anxious, snapped back answers to questions from the
others, several times swearing at those who asked them. When Carlos
,
usually the mildest of the five Colombian men, suggested angrily that
booby-trapping the Nissan van with explosives had been una idea
,
Miguel snatched up a knife. Then, gaining control of himself, he put it
down
.
In truth, Miguel knew that booby-trapping the passenger van at White Plains
had been a bad mistake. The intention was to provide a harsh warning about
the kidnappers' seriousness, after they had gone
.
After was the operative word
.
Miguel had been confident that because of changes in the van's appearance
made following the kidnap---eliminating the
d
ark windows and switching from New Jersey to New York license plates-it would remain unnoticed in the White Plains parking garage for five or six days, perhaps much longer
.
Clearly, his judgment had been wrong. Worse, that morning's explosion and
aftermath had refocused national attention on the Sloane family's
kidnappers and raised police and public alertness to a peak, just when
they were ready to steal quietly out of the country
.
Neither Miguel nor the others cared in the least about the deaths and
general mayhem at White Plains. In other circumstances they would have
been amused. They cared only to the extent that they themselves were now
in greater peril and it need not have occurred
.
The conspirators at Hackensack batted questions back and forth: Would
police roadblocks, which according to news reports had eased since
Thursday, be reinstated? If so, would there be one or more between the
hideaway and Teterboro Airport? And what about the airport? Would
security be tighter because of the new alert? And even if the four who
were going, plus captives, managed to leave Teterboro safely in the
private Learjet, what of the stop at Florida's Opa Locka Airport? How
great was the danger there?
No one, including Miguel, had any answers. All they knew for sure was
that they were committed to going; the machinery of their transfer was
in motion and they must take their chances
.
Another reason for tension, perhaps inevitable, was the increasing
disenchantment of the conspirators with one another. Having been in close
confinement for more than a month with only the most limited outside
contacts, some personal irritations became magnified into something close
to hatred
.
Particularly obnoxious to the others was Rafael's habit of coughing up
mucus, then spitting it out wherever he found himself, including at the
meal table. At one mealtime Carlos was so offended that he called Rafael
jun bruto odiosol, prompting Rafael to grab Carlos by the shoulders
,
throw him against a wall, then pummel him with hamlike fists. Only
Miguel's intervention saved Carlos from injury. Since then, Rafael had not changed his habit though Carlos seethed
.
Luis and Julio had also become antagonists. The week before, Julio had
accused Luis of cheating at cards. A fistfight ensued which neither won
,
but next day they had swollen faces and the two had scarcely spoken
since
.
Now, Socorro was another source of friction. Despite her earlier
rejection of sexual overtures, last night she had bedded with Carlos. The
animal noises had aroused envy in the other men and intense jealousy in
Rafael, who had wanted Socorro for himself and reminded her this morning
.
But, she told him in front of the others during breakfast, "You will have
to change your filthy manners before you stick your Yerga in me
.”