Confusion in Munich

In Europe headlines announced the release of the Munich hostages, and in Israel people went to bed thinking that they had been saved. Millions of Americans who watched early-evening TV news programs on Tuesday came away with the impression that the athletes had been rescued. In a world of instantaneous communications, everyone knows the news--even when it is false. Rarely in recent years has a single news event been so misreported to so many people as the murders in Munich.

Still, it is difficult to put much of the blame on newsmen. Indeed many reporters, barred from the climactic scene, hesitated when word of the captives' safe release first came from the Bavarian state police, who were responsible for security at the airport in Fuerstenfeldbruck. A few journalists were apparently misled when a local pub owner, Ludwig Pollack, passed a rumor near the airport gate that the terrorists had been seized; from this it was inferred that the hostages were safe. But it was only after receiving confirmation from Conrad Ahlers, official spokesman for the West German government, that many reporters sent firm--and wrong --stories out to the world.

Charles Bietry, a reporter for Agence France Presse, was the first to send out the correct, tragic news after talking with Georg Kronawitter, the mayor of Munich. A.F.P. moved that report at 9:13 p.m. New York time, allowing the New York Times to be accurate in its first edition (part of the first run of the Washington Post reported the hostages rescued; the Post had earlier arranged to get A.F.P. service, but the teleprinter did not arrive until the next morning). U.S. television networks do not subscribe to A.F.P. During the official press conference, which began at about 10 p.m. E.D.T., other reporters learned of the killings and Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German press agency, corrected its earlier false report with a bulletin: "Alle Geiseln getoetet."

Chicago Style. Up to that point, the coverage of the tragedy had been an exercise in frustration, particularly for the TV networks, which were trying to provide up-to-the-minute reports. At the Olympic Village, newsmen were kept away from Building 31, where the Israelis were being held. Later, at the airport, armed guards accompanied by attack dogs kept reporters and cameras outside the 6 1/2-ft. fence.

ABC, which had won coverage rights to the Olympic Games, started with a clear edge over its competitors. It had both a staff on the scene and a near monopoly of the transatlantic satellite. Thus it was ironic that ABC, which does not normally air network programs before noon, was the last of the TV networks to broadcast the initial news of the terrorist raid.

After that, ABC's Jim McKay, ordinarily an overeffusive sportscaster, managed a restrained, effective tone, and Peter Jennings, the network's Middle East correspondent--who had himself been held captive by Arab guerrillas for a few hours in May 1971 --provided valuable background information. Borrowing some lessons from old-style Chicago journalism, John Wilcox, a film producer for ABC Sports, donned a T shirt, U.S. track-team jacket and track shoes to sneak past the guards at Olympic Village and position himself in an apartment opposite Building 31. From his hidden vantage point, he radioed reports on the activities of the Germans and the terrorists.

One oddity of the network coverage was a silly feud over use of the satellite. CBS asked for pool use of ABC's picture from Munich and was turned down. Tit for tat, CBS refused to allow pool coverage later on when it had exclusive signals from the satellite. Eventually, executives at both networks decided that they had had enough and agreed on joint picture coverage for the remaining hours of the drama. At that point NBC joined the pool. Even so, the networks during the long afternoon ran some of their normal fare of soap operas and game shows.

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