INE Wil. GABE PRESSMAN D By LEE ROSENBAUM A day in the life of New York's premier TV newsman“Anyone who has followed the news business in New York—which is the biggest of the big leagues in journalism —knows that Gabe Pressman was ‘who revolutionized television reporting here . —Mayor John V. Lindsay ‘cutting room and his typewriter, he mentally jug- led the two stories he had worked on that day. His fitst assignment was routine. He had stepped into, the crowded conference room of Brooklyn District At- torney Eugene Gold's office alter most of the other nowsinen had found their places, and strode up front, slipping into a seat near the DA. Gold announced that Paul Vario Sr., a “consigliere” to the Carmine Tramunti family, had been arrested in connection with a truck hi- jacking. Then Pressman attacked: the fastest voice in New York, His trick was to break in just before a speak- cer had finished, before anyone else could get the floor. Whenover Gabe Pressman decided to speak, the other reporters in New York could only listen. Des: ‘was on deadline. Migrating between the ‘Tie stauren listening back in 1954, when Pressman beeame WRCA's “roving reporter” after working five years for the New York World-Telegram & Sun. About ‘a year later, he moved from the radio station to WNBC- TV, He felt sure that within a few years all of the tele- vision and radio stations in New York would have news operations, and blithely said so to one NBC executive. “Gabe, get it out of your head; this isn’t the news- paper business. You're just a gimmick,” the executive dismissed him, Little did he know that this “gimmick” would become PRESSMANI, super-reporter of New York, the first and many say still the best local television journalist in the city, who got the meat while other pressmen in the pack were still barking He got there through a combination of drive, Ick and contacts: the only broadcaster flying over the scene at the time of the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956, the only reporter able to set up continuous communica: tion from the scene of the 1957 reseue of young Benny Hooper who had been trapped 14 hours in a well on Long Island, the first to break the news of the World Journal Tribune newspaper merger in. 1966. The incident Pressman likes to recall to bolster his image as leader of the press pack occurred in 1965, dur- ing the minutes before a press conference called by for- mer Mayor Robert F. Wagner to announce whether he would seck a fourth term. Pressman caught the eye of one of his contacts in the Wagner administration, turned thumbs wp, and gazed quetioingy. ‘The ad- ministration man gave a thumbs down reply, and Press- man got the bulletin on NBG 20 minutes’ before the other reporters had news of the unexpected decision. Pressman immodestly confesses to having covered “nearly every major crime, disaster and political story in New York in the last 20 years,” and he has picked up the usual assortment of honors and awards that go with Lee Rosenbaum is a free-lance writer in New York ity ond a former veporter with the Binghamton (N'.) Tvening Proseeee - - Pressman immodestly confesses to having covered ‘nearly every major crime, disaster and. political story in New York in the last 20 years’. ” i such distinction. The George Polk Award, the Radiow TV News Directors Association Award, the New York City Newspaper Reporters Association Award, the Headliners Award, the Sylvania Award and, moxt re- cently, the Columbia University. Graduate School of Journalism Alumni Award have all come his way, some more than onee. Fon at ms celebrated professionalism, Pressman, suffering from a headache, would have been quite satis: fied to pass up his second assignment that day Thrce white men had attacked two school buses tray- cling to a junior high school in Queens, breaking wine dows and throwing oil on the children, most of whom were black or Puerto Rican, Several children had been taken to the hospital, but nobody: knew where the af- fected children were now, or whether this ineident was another case of racial confrontation like the trouble that week in Canacsic During the NBC days, Pressman would have done some of the necessary checking from the phone in his car while his chaulfeur drove him to the scene. Such considerations were unknown at WNEW, where he had joined after quitting his NBC job last Juno, Still, the in- creased freedom he had at the smaller station out. weighed these inconveniences, he thought, although he war ot yet satisfied wit hi statu thee, The pepe at WNEW had worried that the news star from NB anight start acting the prima donna, But after several mnonths of relative meckness, he was deliberately he- ginning to raise some foothills in the low profile he had heen instructed to keep. At fist this took the form of temperamental outbursts at station personnel. But lat he hoped to make more substantial changes in his role at the station, like doing his own news program, (He recently got his wish, with the Januaty debut of a week. ly half-hour talk show, “Gabe.”) In checking out the school bus story, Pressman talked with a bus driver, the police, a child who had been at tacked, and her mother. The school prineipal s “to be perfectly honest,” he had no idea why th oceurred. “When anyone says, To be perfectly honest . or “Frankly speaking... 7 you know he's got to be fying” Pressman always said While the rest of the press was fist picking up on the story at the school, Pressman followed one of the buses ‘on its afternoon run, and then made a lunch out of a couple of beers and a bag of cashews, As he called his office from a drugstore for further instructions, he was, as usual, recognized. “Gabe Pressman! You look better in person than on television “That's not good,” he said, as he walked out the door “T make my living from television Sho wasn’t the only person who had told him that. is raccoon eyes appeared dour and sunken on camera es which had seen much and were slightly wearied by it, But by day they glowed with a more natural light = perceptive, intense, surprisingly warm, At the scene of the moming ineident, some plane clothesmen were waiting for their suspects — three neighborhood workers — to reappear. Pressman found an eyewitness there who was willing to talk. The man, who’ did not wish to be identified, agreed with the police and the bus driver that the attack had been an act of revenge against the children who frequently pelted neighborhood residents with eggs, stones and other objects from the bus. Meanwhile, waiting around for something to happen, the NBC crew members were standing beside the tripod they had conspicuously planted near the plainclathesmen. Pressman took spe- cial pleasure in besting his former employer, NBC. Not permitted to photograph the eyewitness, Press: man's cameraman, Working on a side street away from the stake-out, focused on the interviewer: A little man who seemed taller than he was, wearing a stylishly tai- lored suit under the pile lining of his raincoat, his eyes crinkled, not from the late afternoon sun, but from con. centration, Pressman listened gravely, showing not a hint of sympathy for what his subject was saying, never nodding encouragement. Only his constant gaze and th Lilt of his microphone told “his man to keep talking, Neighborhood children crowded around, hoping to get on television, and when the interview was over, they asked Pressman when he was going to appear. “What did you say your name was — Dave Press- man?” one latecomer demanded. Gabe,” Pressman enunciated again Tr norrenen him that these children didn’t even know his name. The one local newsman they probably did know was Geraldo Rivera, the 29-year-old newsman from ABC.* Rivera was a disgrace for what he had done to journalisin in New York, Pressman felt strongly. But he had to admit that Rivera's act was appreciated. by the public, He reflected ruefully that 49-year-old. Gabe Pressman was still one of the city’s best known newsmen — among middle-aged Indies Pressman saw himself descended in spirit from a line *°F want nothing to do with objectivity. ‘The essential ‘question for me is: How can Tbe most ellective. in changing society? ... Tim very much an egoist, and Tm aseate of my own mortality. T believe my function is to ‘change the world in some measurable way before I die And if Lhave to shake ‘New York and the inslitions ‘of journalism to their very foundations to do it, T will” Geraldo Rivera in the June ise of Playboy F : E. eer Teu | of New York’s most distinguished journalists, and part of the obligation imposed by this nobility was objec- tivity. For the past 12 years he had registered as an ine dependent voter, preferring to forfeit his vote in the pri- marries than give any appearance of bias, He scorned ein lla t GABE PRESSMAN seems to be always alongside tom news figures 4 Here he joins on one of President ‘Truman's walks with reports 4 in New York during the lote 1950s i fond in more recent times with Moyor John Lindsoy. Pres ‘man's tough questions ere alo neweworthy, os shown by the other microphones pointed in his direction. Rivera for publicly associating with the presidential campaign of George McGovern, and he believed that Rivera, who had won many awards after only two years with ABC, was getting more credit than he deserved. Am article in the magazine section of the Sept. 10 New York Daily News, which described Rivera doughtily scaling a wall at the Willowbrook State School to pre- vent hostile administrators from concealing the truth about their care for the mentally retarded, so incensed Pressman that he shot off a letter to the editor, saying that Rivera was “not alone” at Willowbrook, but act ‘companied by Pressman himself. The officials of the in- stitution “balked at first, but soon agreed to let us go anywhere without scaling walls,” Pressman wrote. Rivera, he felt, did not deserve full credit for the addi- tional state funds which went to the institution. He ended his letter to the News with his own eredo: “As the article indicated, Geraldo is a romanticist — and I am, too, But I believe in old-fashioned reporting and the romance of facts.” Pressman wished that somchow he could debate Rivera and pin his cars back. Just a few questions would do it: Do you feel you should report both sides of the story if you already know the truth? Does God inform yo what the truth is when you get up in the morning? He grimly predicted that Rivera would go into polities full time, and when he did, he would fall on his face. Carne 1 the car for the trip back to the office, Pressman began sucking on his plastic cigarette. He had given up smoking two weeks ago when he had started feeling ill, and now he chewed gum, sucked his phony cigarette, and ate more, making him worry about his weight, Pressman had lived in New York all his life, starting in the South Bronx, and almost every street held some meaning for him. Driving through parts of Queens on the way back to the ollice, he recalled the days when he was dating his first wife — something he hadn't thought about in quite awhile, He had remarried last April — a Norwegian girl who loved the outdoors. New York wasn’t exactly ideal for a person who liked hiking, Jhut then living in Norway could be monotonous in its Ieauty, Pressman though, He regretted that he could not spend enough time with his wie: His job eame frst, and he tried to be a good father to the children from his first marriage. Back in the office to soxt out the day's stories, he took a call from Tom Morgan, John Lindsay’s press secre- tary, who said that the mayor had just issued a state- ment deploring the Queens school bus ineident as a racist attack, recalling “the worst incidents of racial vio- lence in the 1960s.” “The statement, Morgan said, was based on a report from the New York Post.“... Pressman enjoyed working with these technicians — the film editors, the camera crew, the men who knew their trade and were consistently good, relating what he had learned, “I can't justify their at- tacking’ the bus, but I can sure understand them a lot Detter than T can understand parents who bring up their children to throw rocks from a bus.” Returning to the cutting room, he continued editing the film with the help of a man who had been in the business for 18 years, The judgment of reporter and film editor fit together as smoothly'as the strips of film which \were snipped and spliced, arid most of the day's footage was left on the floor Pressman enjoyed working with these technicians — the film editors, the camera crew, the men who know their trade and were consistently good. In many ways, he could identify with them more than with the man- agers, who were sometimes insensitive to the high tradi- on of New York journalism in their search for now mmicks to boost ratings and make profits, “The Blink- ”” Pressman called them — those corporate men who uttered and smiled and Inumored him without listen- ing. The Blinkers at NBC had had lots of “new ideas” which Pressman thought were no ideas. For several years. his discontent grow. until on June 7, he resigned his job at NBC in a small flurry of publicity. A New York Times article quoted Pressman’s letter of resigna- tion, in which he said he did not believe NBC. was “the dest milieu” for hard news coverage and profound in- vestigative reporting, Also quoted was the letter accept- ing Pressman’s resignation, written by Reuven Frank, vice president of NBC News and a classmate of Press: man in 1947 at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “Bocause we share your belief that investigative re- porting is vital to television journalism, we hoped to see more of it from you than we did,” Frank wrote in his harshly worded fetter. It was a rare public display of the bad feeling which had been brewing at NBC. An- other NBC-TV newsman contacted by the Times, who did not wish to he identified, said that the ratings prob- lem of the 6 o'clock news show had caused the station to make “oddball” changes, which “made it a rough place for a purist, a classical reporter like Gabe,” Press- man told the Times he was taking no cut in his salary (hich the Times said was more than $75,000), and “anyway, whats important is that WNEW is oriented to hard news, scrious news, presented without gim- icky.” A woman poked her head past the cutting room door to say Morgan was on the phone again for Pressman Morgan was still questioning the interpretation of the school bus incident and Pressman — at work since 8 am, now nearing his 10 pam. air time fueled only by two sodden eggroils and a small bag of cashews — blew his low profile and allowed himself the brief luxury of throwing off the yoke of calm objectivity. “I just caine back from five hours on the street, and you're telling me this was a racist attack?” Pressman bellowed. He blasted the Lindsay administration for not giving the people proper protection, and shouted his disapproval of taking the Post as gospel without coven checking the police. He could not tolerate this in- sult to his news judgment. “Tm ready to go to City Hall any time of the day or night to tell you what I've seen, and you can tell that to Lindsay,” Pressman said hotly. A co-worker walked past quickly, a mixed look of fear and ineredulity fickering on his face Deadline was getting dangerously close as Pressman got rid of Morgan. The producer said he wanted to cut art of the bus driver interview to save time. “You'll be cutting the guts out of this story!” Press- ‘man objected to the young man, The segment remained intact At his desk, Pressman timed his voice-over for part ‘of the school bus piece, and found it a few seconds short. He stretched the question, “How would he de- ‘scribe his run?" to, “How would he describe the 10Ist Avenue run?” but that still left him a little short. For a moment, he considered changing it to, “How would he describe what he called the IOlst Avenue obstacle course?” Tt would have been putting words in the bus river's mouth, but it accurately reflected the man’s feelings and no one would have known the difference, Pressman decided to leave the copy as it was and left the newsroom for the studio. ‘Waiting for the elevator to rise to the third floor, he hyperventilated. On reaching the first floor, he took a detour to a side room where he Iet out a gut-tearing “00-0-0-0. 00-0-0-0. 0o-0-0-0," went the mnlflod choes through the hall. A voice teacher had taught him this, and he really should have done it for five minutes Dut he didn’t have time. He took his place in the studio in the last row beside reporter Sara Pentz, who later ‘would tell him that the news director was eritical of the school bus piece because he felt Pressinan had editorial- ized. Pressman felt Ine had attributed the explanation to the persons he had interviewed, but aninutes after the piece was aired, the station would hogin to, get calls saying either that he was racist or that Ihe was “right on.” At first, he would shrug it off: “It’s good to be controversial.” Later, he would concede that perhaps he had overstated his’ case: ‘The facts could have spoken for themselves. The following week, the Village Voice would single out Pressman’s coverage of the attack as an example of what made him “the finest ‘TV newsman in New York.” But right now, all he knows is that his is the lead piece, and a good one. Pressman is on the air, .