FNC’s Harrigan In Haiti: “Each Day We Just Seem To Be Getting Darker Into It”

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by Steve Krakauer | 4:52 pm, January 18th, 2010

» 12 comments

Fox News reporter Steve Harrigan has covered the war in Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina. But of the Haiti devastation, he calls it “a mini-Rwanda.”

Mediaite spoke to Harrigan by phone today, hours after he delivered another heart-wrenching report.

“Usually with these stories, the first day, first two days, things are really bad, then you start to see dramatic differences,” he tells Mediaite today by phone, standing in a dirt field 200 yards from the hotel housing most of the FNC operations. “So far here, each day, we just seem to be getting darker into it.”

Harrigan reported today from an area where bodies were being disposed of in large holes, of which he described, “the way bodies, thousands of them, are treated in Haiti right now today is worse than garbage.” The emotional report is below. “It really makes you wonder how the world is going to do this, to send out a successful operation to take care of so many people,” Harrigan told us.

Harrigan has noticed some improvements in the region – cell service has been reestablished, feeding stations are opening, the Red Cross is more visible – but overall, there is still much that needs to be done. “Along with the thousands of casualties, the biggest casualty is the sense of shame in a society is gone right now,” he said. “You feel really helpless when you see the bodies. You feel ashamed and helpless.”

Last week Harrigan’s got choked up on-air while describing the sight, and smell, of death. He reflected on the moment today, but also on reporting on these types of horrific stories in general:

After a while I couldn’t go on. You don’t really have to say too much on a story like this. The pictures do the talking. On a story like this it’s wrong to stand up and talk about yourself or shout poetry. The pictures are screaming so you don’t have to. Just get to the worst spot, try to stand there as long as you can, and show and tell people what you see.

Now four days later, the woman in the video is “still there,” he said. “Right there on her mattress.”

Harrigan had an analogy for the situation in Haiti. He described a woman who spent four days and nights calling out to her son who was trapped in their collapsed house, with no way for her to reach him. Her son called back, but by the time help arrived, it was too late. “When Baby Jessica was in a well, we had one baby in the well and the nation watched,” he said. “We have Baby Jessicas everywhere here.”

Harrigan expects to leave Haiti at the end of the week, but says he could very well be back soon after if the story changes. One thing you won’t hear from him is what people should be doing to help – advocacy journalism. “I try to do what I can do, which is stand next to a pit and tell people that they’re dumping bodies here,” he said.

Here’s the clip from this morning:

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Back From Haiti, fnc, fox news, Haiti, haiti earthquake, shepard smith, Steve Harrigan

The Real Royal King

This is a moving segment, very well done. FOX has a few good people, scattered amongst the loud, angry, vacuous, narcissistic rightist zealots in the stable. Good work, Steve and Steve.
sarainitaly

gawd, this is just so unbelievably awful. it’s impossible to grasp the scope of this. the actual size of damaged areas, and the number of people affected. it’s like 9/11, pearl harbor and Katrina all rolled into one….

i can’t imagine the suffering, and heartbreak of the victims, but i imagine the reporters are going to have some tough times ahead as well. i can’t imagine this is something that leaves your mind when you close your eyes at night.

very, very sad.
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

This stands in contrast to the network reporter I saw on day 2 spending a length of airtime describing the challenging conditions he and his crew had for sleeping arrangements. I wanted to throttle that self-absorbed ass! Mostly we are getting gripping accounts where the reporters get out of the way of the story, and Harrigan is a testament to those reports.
da-wdc

Harrigan has really done great reporting on this story. I have seen reporters and anchors on the ground there talking too much about themselves, maybe just talking too much in general, trying too hard to be heart-wrenching, and it seems wrong. A segment like this where he is just telling the facts is much more powerful.
BJL411

WAIT! you mean FAUX finally spent 3 minutes on the crisis in Haiti? no! Was it from the perspective of some white patriots from the US who needed rescuing or coming home in an airport! Or some interview of a US military dude about to rescue and bring home some US patriots!

You mean Faux, “standing in a dirt field 200 yards from the HOTEL housing most of the FNC operations actually got out around the Haitian population? wow !

That’s news in and of itself!
Fidoohki

BJL411 says,

You know what? While you are entitled to your opinion this isn’t the time for this type of crap.Like Maddow and Rush you crossed the line into loonyland.
http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

What do you make of someone behaving in exactly the manner they criticise others as behaving?
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Boyer/602168764 John Boyer

What was that about not being a real news network? Ignore the prime time block and watch this.
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bradstyris

Al, if Haiti had been a prosperous nation before this, it’s likely that many of the buildings would have been stable and not have collapsed so quickly and easily. Our Police Commissioner (Ray Kelly, father of former FNCer Greg Kelly) used to work with the Haitian police and was there only a week or so before the earthquake, and he pointed to that as a major reason for why so many people were killed in this tragedy.

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Capt Kirk

I have never seen a better foreign correspondant than Steve Harrigan. He is the best and bravest at what he does and should be recognised for his superiority.

The guy has taken risks that I would never have imagined a simple reporter would ever take in order to get the story out. I can remember one time back in 2002 being up all night when he was pinned down on a rooftop in Afghanistan. I can also recall feeling like I was actually out in the field with him at the mountains of Tora Bora. The list goes on and on.

It’s sad that he simply works for the “wrong network” and his body of work over the last 10 years will probably never be properly recognised and rewarded.
The Real Royal King

Your point is most interesting, Kirk. There is, indeed, so much bad, very, very bad at FOX, that the good tends to be overlooked. I have no doubt that at a legitimate news network, Harrigan would rise to national fame very quickly.