Reporting from New York — As the magnitude of destruction in Haiti unfolded Wednesday, U.S. television networks scrambled to get reporters into the devastated country, a task greatly complicated by the shaky security and broken infrastructure.
With the air traffic control tower at the Port-au-Prince airport severely damaged, the biggest challenge was just getting near the epicenter of the earthquake that hit Tuesday.
CNN's Anderson Cooper appeared to be the first television reporter to make it into the country, by hitching a ride Wednesday morning on a government helicopter from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. The copter was nearly clipped by a plane as it approached Port-au-Prince. CBS' Kelly Cobiella reached Haiti shortly afterward, after driving through the night on a dangerous road from the Dominican Republic.
"Haiti is not an easy place to get to on a good day," said David Reiter, ABC's vice president of news gathering. "We've tried a lot of different ways, over land and in the air, and we're considering sea options."
It was a predicament facing all major news organizations. The Columbia Journalism Review noted that since there are just three wire service reporters based in Haiti, the bulk of on-the-ground reporting did not begin until Wednesday morning, when the media were finally able to get into the stricken country.
News executives said that as soon as they heard the magnitude of the earthquake and that it was centered near the crowded Haitian capital, they knew it was going to be a major story. But the difficulty in reaching the country forced many networks to rely on Twitter and Skype in their initial reports -- particularly CNN, which aggressively covered the quake's destruction in the early hours, despite a lack of footage.
"We got some of our first images from Facebook," said Tony Maddox, managing director of CNN International. "It's incredible how our business has changed. Even in a country as challenged as Haiti, still people have been able . . . to get their voices heard."
