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Danger at sea 350 miles off the coast of Somalia was the unanimous choice to lead the nightly newscasts. All three anchors styled Bluebeard to introduce the Story of the Day, a battle over Alabama, a container ship operated by the Maersk Line. "It is a story worthy of a Hollywood movie, high drama on the high seas," was Charles Gibson's lead on ABC. The "modern day version" of pirates are "tough and violent and brazen," NBC anchor Brian Williams told us, as if the pirates of yore were not. "What happened today has not happened in any of our lifetimes," declared CBS anchor Katie Couric, which was technically true. Although piracy of container ships is a fact of life around the Horn of Africa, the Alabama was the first target of the Jolly Roger in 200 years to be flying the American flag.

CBS kicked off with a radioed eyewitness account from Ken Quinn, the Alabama's second mate. He recounted being boarded by four Somali pirates toting AK-47s and their escape in a lifeboat with the ship's captain, Richard Phillips, held hostage. "Wait! I have got to go. I am piloting the ship."

All three newscasts assigned the story to their Pentagon correspondents. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski told us that the Maersk Line's crews are instructed not to resist "but after ten hours the American crew reportedly overpowered one of the pirates." CBS' David Martin reported that "the captain actually gave himself up in order to protect the rest of the crew." ABC's Martha Raddatz added that the crew offered to exchange that fourth overpowered pirate for the captain "but the pirates did not uphold their end of the bargain. The hostage pirate was released. The captain was not."

For follow-up, CBS' Richard Roth ran down the current Somali piracy statistics. According to the International Maritime Bureau, this was the 50th attack so far in 2009. At present 14 ships are being held ransom in Somali coastal waters with 300 of their sailors. ABC aired a 1st Person feature that NHK-TV happened to obtain from the Alabama's first mate Shane Murphy a month ago, contemplating the dangers ahead: "The stem of the problem is the collapse of the government in Somalia. Anyone with a weapon and means can go out and when these people come back they are heroes in their town. They are treated like stars. They are millionaires. They have money and they can spread the money around."

Mate Murphy happens to be the son of Joseph Murphy, an instructor in anti-piracy self-defense techniques at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi filed a feature on the changes in its midshipmen's curriculum now that piracy has become a fact of life.


Andrew Tyndall 4/9/09 9:40:47 pm

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