Columbia tape shows network competition

NEW YORK -- During coverage of the space shuttle Columbia's disintegration, the folks in CNN's control room thought the picture they saw on rival Fox News Channel looked familiar.\nSo they tried a little experiment.\nThe producers superimposed a tiny "CNN" logo on the upper left corner of the network's screen as it showed the shuttle breaking into pieces. Blip! The same logo appeared on Fox News Channel.\nThen they decided to abruptly switch cameras so a picture of correspondent Miles O'Brien appeared. For two seconds -- until it was hurriedly replaced with a view of NASA's mission control -- it looked like O'Brien was working for Fox, too.\nThe shuttle disaster provided a vivid example of the lengths to which television networks sometimes go to get the most compelling pictures for a big story -- and an even more vivid example of the consequences if they don't.\nA Fox News Channel spokesman did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Earlier, a station representative told Broadcasting & Cable magazine that its request to explain the apparent piracy was "a waste of time."\nAs the Columbia flew over Texas on the morning of Feb. 1, Dallas station WFAA-TV followed its normal routine for fly-bys: A cameraman was assigned to capture the streak across the sky.\nThe picture appeared live on the air. But it wasn't for several minutes, until the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it had lost contact with the shuttle's crew, that it became clear what WFAA's pictures revealed.\nSeveral videos of the shuttle falling apart, both amateur and professional, eventually surfaced that day. But for a certain period as the nation awoke to the unfolding tragedy -- perhaps as much as an hour -- WFAA's pictures were the only ones available.\nWFAA has affiliation agreements with both ABC and CNN. Television is a complex web of affiliations and exclusivity arrangements. Usually, they're respected. But with satellite dishes, networks can pluck virtually any pictures out of the sky and, on a big story, it's often anything goes.\nCBS used WFAA's video in its special report. The network politely asked for permission -- after the pictures had already appeared.\nCBS News President Andrew Heyward argued that the concept of fair use -- essentially the legal term for anything goes -- applies in cases of national emergencies.\n"Every once in a while you have a piece of video that is so newsworthy you really can't keep it off the air," Heyward said. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, network news division heads agreed that they all could use each other's video.