Everywhere But in Manila

By RICHARD ZOGLIN.

The major news was the fall of President Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. But the route to Manila last week was a meandering one for viewers of the three network news shows. CBS Evening News Anchorman Dan Rather introduced the story from San Antonio and Sioux Falls, S. Dak., where he was doing a series of reports on America's farmers. Tom Brokaw launched the NBC Nightly News coverage on Tuesday from Washington, where the big story was the inquiry into the explosion of the space shuttle. And on ABC, coverage of the drama in the Philippines began in Moscow, where World News Tonight Anchor Peter Jennings was fighting off a bad cold. After opening Monday's newscast with sniffles and a rasping voice, he passed the baton to Ted Koppel, who wanted to be in Manila but was stuck in Hong Kong. He, in turn, switched to Correspondent Jim Laurie in Manila, who threw it back to Sheilah Kast in Washington.

Rarely has the global village had such a complicated road map. But last week's satellite hopscotching did emphasize the significant change that has overtaken the role of the network anchor. Once a deskbound newsreader, he is more and more becoming a super-reporter, traveling to major news stories and taking much of the network's news operations with him in a traveling road show of electronic gadgetry. Though none of the three evening news anchors went to the Philippines last week, NBC's Brokaw and ABC's Jennings were in the country three weeks earlier for the presidential elections. All three anchors were in Geneva last November for the summit and in Mexico City in September to report on the earthquake. Jennings anchored 19 newscasts from foreign locations last year, including Paris, Bitburg and Hiroshima.

Network anchors have become frequent fliers partly because of the increasingly portable technology of television. Compact editing and control- room equipment and other video gear can now be transported across the globe without great difficulty. If satellite transmission stations are not available locally, they can be packed up and shipped in. Instant satellite hookups last week made possible such scenes as ABC Commentator George Will sparring with Soviet Journalist Vladimir Posner in Moscow, and President Corazon Aquino in the Philippines being interviewed by Dan Rather in the farm belt.

But the ease with which a network producer can press a button and bring in a distant image got ABC into trouble with the White House on Wednesday night following President Reagan's nationally televised speech on defense spending. Taking advantage of its hookup with Moscow, the network gave Posner an opportunity to comment for seven minutes. This infuriated Patrick J. Buchanan, Reagan's director of communications, who criticized ABC in a letter for giving air time to a "trained propagandist." Richard Wald, ABC News senior vice president, agreed in a statement that the network had erred by "letting (Posner) push on at too great a length without an opposing voice to point out the errors and inconsistencies in what he said."

This was a transitory incident, however, in a week in which the Philippines dominated the news shows. The network anchors admitted to some frustration at being far away from the big story. But they defended the decision to stay put. "We had been planning to do this for some time," said Jennings of ABC's coverage of the 27th Communist Party congress in Moscow. "That was a four-day revolution, and you can't chase after every hot story of the week." ABC did send Ted Koppel and his Nightline crew to cover the story. But after leaving New York City for the Philippines over the weekend, they were stranded in Hong Kong on Monday night because Manila's airport was closed. They finally got into the Philippines, with 100 cases of equipment, on Tuesday.

| Koppel's colleagues, meanwhile, were in the difficult position of explaining just what they were doing in their distant locales. Brokaw observed awkwardly that his Tuesday program emanated from Washington, "a city that had a major role in those astonishing developments in the Philippines." Opening his Monday broadcast, Rather drew a strained analogy between Manila, where "an embattled President Marcos struggles to hang on," and the U.S. farm belt, where "embattled farmers struggle to hang on" to their land.

Many critics complain that putting anchors in the middle of the story is simply an exercise in promotion. Says Andrew Stern, who teaches broadcast journalism at the University of California, Berkeley: "There's nothing that Dan Rather or Tom Brokaw can add to the Manila story that the guys covering the Far East can't." Network executives disagree. "The purpose of sending an anchor is in large part to say this is an important story," says ABC's Wald. The anchors, too, claim their presence can enhance a story. "You've got three activist anchormen," says Brokaw. "We all come from strong reporting backgrounds, and we still have our legs. The technology makes it possible for us to go out and provide a little sharp er focus on stories that we think are important."

The urge to travel is not likely to go away. The networks are faced with growing competition, not only from one another but from aggressive local stations and independent news services. Showcasing the anchor in remote locations is one way for a network to demonstrate its uniqueness. Still, major trips will probably remain special occasions, at least for the near future. "We have to pick our opportunities carefully," says Bill Wheatley, executive producer of the NBC Nightly News. "We can't be a constant road show."

With reporting by Barrett Seaman/Washington, with other bureaus