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FLYING INTO THE NEWS
Callahan is a free-lance writer who lives in Venice, California.
Once again, Bob Tur, a helicopter newsman in Los Angeles, has become part of a story he set out to cover. Tur is slated to be a key witness in the trial of four black men accused of beating white trucker Reginald Denny following the verdicts in the Rodney King case last April -- an assault that Tur, with his wife and partner, Marika Gerrard, broadcast on live television as the city came apart at the seams. The trial is expected to begin sometime this winter.
For seven years now, currently for KCBS television and KNX radio, he has repeatedly crossed the line between observer and participant. In 1988, Tur used his helicopter to ferry more than fifty people to safety when a storm ravaged an oceanfront hotel in Redondo Beach. Last year, he and a colleague rescued a man from flood waters that swept through the San Fernando Valley. By his count, Tur has saved a total of sixty-two people in his career, earning several commendations for bravery -- and widespread criticism of what he calls his "active instead of reactive" reporting style.
In 1991 the Federal Aviation Administration suspended his pilot's license in response to allegations by the Los Angeles County Fire Department that he had repeatedly interfered at emergency scenes. Tur, who must now rely on a co-pilot to do the flying, responded with a $ 47 million lawsuit claiming fire department officials had tried to ruin his reputation by falsifying accounts of his actions during rescue operations because, he says, his aggressive reporting is "capable of showing their shortcomings."
"In a life or death situation it's fine" to intervene, says John Tamburro, a pilot for KTLA news in Los Angeles, who also covered last year's flood. "But if rescue crews are around, the media shouldn't get involved. Guys like Tur go out and look for it too much."
But Tur is unrepentant. "It's always appropriate to get involved," he says. "Journalists should play a role in helping people. Isn't that their job?"
In the wake of the Denny video, however, Tur is for the first time receiving criticism for not getting involved, a charge that particularly annoys him. "Some people expected us to land and explain to these people that what they were doing was wrong," Tur says. "If I had tried to stop these thugs we would have been killed. It was a war zone, people were shooting at us."
