BBC News Special
BBC1, 1.00pm
Jonathan Dimbleby
ITV1, 1.00pm
News channels, various
The first draft of history came as a piece of greenish-blue video tape, endlessly repeated. All day, the breaking news kept on
breaking. As though at the flick of a switch, the world's TV channels became a single channel. ''Ladies and gentlemen,'' said the voice in the signal bouncing between the satellites, ''we got him''.
At times such as this, the test for the medium lies in the time-lag between communication and comprehension. TV had the essential fact - a bearded man found at the bottom of a hole - but no real understanding of what it might mean. It had Paul Bremer, America's viceroy, and an exultant general. It had long-predicted pictures from the streets of Baghdad and the promise of words from Tony Blair. But it had no answer to the only question: was the killing over?
BBC1, bizarrely, ended its News Special before the prime minister spoke and cut to EastEnders. ITV1 at least had Jonathan Dimbleby's scheduled slot - an interview with transport minister Alistair Darling - in which to demonstrate that ITN's news values survive. Elsewhere, for those with a cable or satellite box, the world was shrinking.
BBC Parliament went to
C-Span's Washington Journal and a vox pop brilliant in its simplicity: just Americans, saying what was on their
minds, uninterrupted. Every caller did homage to America's troops, yet every caller sounded thoughtful, almost troubled. Did this really mean what they hoped it meant?
On CNN, Christiane Amanpour was earning her vast salary with some extempore eloquence on the subject of ''a trapped animal'' and the question of his fate. On BBC News 24, the equally astute Brian Hanrahan was arguing that a fugitive living in an 8ft hole could not be the
controlling genius in a guerrilla war. Blair, who has no peer in such situations, appeared before the world to stake a claim, soberly, for ''a sovereign independent state based on justice, democracy and the rule of law''.
At this point you began to wish for more from the talking heads. Had Downing Street cleared this intervention with the White House? Did George Bush know that his thunder had been stolen comprehensively? On ITV, the excellent Nick Robinson asserted blithely: ''This changes the political dynamic totally.'' But in
what fashion?
TV news, as often as not, is the equivalent of classroom show and tell. It squeezes every fact it can from a situation, but sometimes the sheer speed of its technology, staggering by any measure, is the enemy of rational analysis.
On TVE, the Spanish channel, there was an
''Especial Informativo''. The Francophone TV5 had ''Speciale: arrestation Saddam Hussein''. We were all instant experts the lean-to mud hut and a spider hole. Our heads were
full of history. But here was
the problem of the
television age: acquiring a
fact with awesome ease
and understanding its
meaning are two very different things.
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