Just the Facts

FROM THE BEGINNING, the rapidly unfolding drama of TWA Flight 847 was a made-for-television extravaganza.

When two Shiite gunmen seized an American jetliner and its passengers in the skies over Greece nine days ago, the event was undeniably a Very Big Story. Once again, America's invisible but ubiquitous enemies had struck, and once again, the guardian of the free world had proven vulnerable. Innocent lives hung in the balance, and difficult questions of national security returned to the fore.

Almost reflexively, the national media sprang into action. Network anchors ran roughshod over regularly scheduled programs, and network executives hastily rescheduled their programming to accommodate special reports.

If anyone in the nation's newsrooms stopped to wonder whether U.S. journalists weren't seizing the bait in a colossal, sinister trap, their voices were lost in the din. The feeding frenzy had begun.

Reporting on the current hostage situation has been comprehensive and meticulous, but at the same time excessive and irresponsible. In their competitive zeal, the editors and producers calling the shots have ignored the potential impact of their coverage, which serves Flight 847's captors and encourages repeat performances.

Terrorists thrive on publicity. Their pawns are not only prisoners, but also unwitting or undisciplined news organizations. Only the media can deliver an international propaganda forum. With the cooperation of the media, a small band of hijackers can manipulate a superpower. Without it, they fail in obscurity.

News organizations should resist the impulse to comply with media events like the current crisis. That's not a call for censorship, and it's not an argument for silence. It's a matter of moderation.

JOURNALISTS SHOULD NEVER abdicate their responsibility to inform the public. But when their coverage of events becomes an inseparable part of those events, they must apply a different set of standards. They must separate the public's need to know from its desire to know. They must not blindly seek to satisfy their viewers' wishes, and they must not be blinded by prestige or profit.

The media has a duty to report the essential facts but an obligation to cut the fat in its coverage of the TWA drama. And that coverage is verging on the obese in the commentary and human interest departments.

Network executives should begin by retiring the legions of experts and self-professed prognosticators who have paraded across our television sets in the last nine days. Most of their comments are highly speculative at best, based on limited information, and many have ventured boldly into the realm of the hypothetical.

Serious questions of national policy and leadership are indeed at issue, but truly enlightened debate must await the situation's resolution. The media has little choice but to accept the role of Monday morning quarterback in evaluating President Reagan's performance; to do otherwise would risk much while offering little of value.

Television executives would also do well to edit the soap opera from their news broadcasts. Many viewers will find the compelling human drama titillating but there is no need for them to share the grief and elation of those families touched by the hijacking.

The relentless, poignant footage of families awaiting word from Beirut the least important aspect of television coverage but the most damaging. The episodes of joy and pain strike a sensitive chord with the American public sustaining the story's emotions pitch--and the terrorists' influence.

As long as the television drama commands a captive audience, the Shiites will continue to hold an entire nation hostage.

That possibility would drive even the most casual observer of the media to pessimism, but the situation is not as desperate as it seems. There is hope, and it lies with the public.

Gradually, the national television audience will migrate from Cable New Network ("Around The World, Around The Clock") and the edge of its seat the Home Box Office and the refrigerator.

The Ordeal of Flight 487 will slowly fade from the screen, a casualty of overexposure and a martyr to the war against terrorism.