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It is no surprise that the coverage of Andrew Speaker has been intense. What is it about a tubercular bridegroom who may have spread supergerms on a plane that does not scream headlines? Now, finally, that fever of coverage appears to be breaking. For the fourth day in a row Speaker was Story of the Day--but he did not qualify for the lead item on any of the three network newscasts. ABC led with military planning for Iraq; CBS with Jack Kevorkian, the euthanasia activist; and NBC with the formal beginning of the hurricane season.

There were few newsworthy developments in the extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis story so the coverage consisted of the patient's words--highlights from the interview he granted to Diane Sawyer of ABC's Good Morning America. "I am very sorry for your fear and putting you at risk," was how NBC's Robert Bazell quoted his apology to his fellow airline passengers. However, Bazell's unnamed official sources stressed that "this one case presents little danger to the public health." By contrast, CBS' Kelly Cobiella emphasized the outrage that Speaker's behavior has provoked. She called him "the now infamous globetrotting tuberculosis patient" and cited "page after page" of online attacks against him "calling him selfish and demanding he be disbarred." Speaker is a lawyer.

So was Speaker reckless or was he not properly warned? ABC's Lisa Stark called it a "he-said-she-said argument." In Georgia, Fulton County health authorities did indeed write him a formal letter advising him not to fly--but it was delivered only after he had already left for Europe. Speaker conceded to Sawyer that they told him in person that they would "prefer" that he not leave. The way Speaker paraphrased that conversation was: "We have to tell you that to cover ourselves but it is not a risk."

What about his travel decisions when he was in Rome, once he had been diagnosed with the XRD-TB supergerm? Surely he should have obeyed Centers for Disease Control then and not flown back across the Atlantic? Sawyer stated: "They were looking at working on options to get you back." "Again that is a complete lie." How about his entry into the United States via Canada? His passport had been "red-flagged" with the instruction "Isolate…Detain…Call Public Health Services," ABC's Jake Tapper (subscription required) pointed out. Speaker told Sawyer he used his own name and passport at all times. Sure enough, the Department of Homeland Security "placed all of the blame with that agent" in Plattsburgh NY who failed to observe the red flag.

Andrew Tyndall 6/2/07 11:41:57 pm

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