"If a family calls you and says they are big fans of Channel 12 and they want to make
sure their son's story is on your station, the pool is in effect. We would be obligated to
call everyone else and tell them," explained D'Ambrosi.
Anything from the immediate family was pool property --- even if there only were
quotes and background information from the telephone call.
1991 Milwaukee Pool Agreement
Here is the text of the pool agreement that was developed by the Milwaukee stations
and agreed to by WTMJ-TV, WISN-TV, WITI-TV, and WVTV- TV.
1. Mission Statement
Milwaukee television news operations have a responsibility to report on the casualties
of war. At the same time, these news organizations wish to gather the necessary
information in a manner that is least intrusive to grieving families.
To that end, we commit to a "pool" arrangement for contacting and covering the
immediate families of military personnel killed or missing in action. One broadcast
media representative would contact the immediate family to obtain biographical
information and to request possible interview. All materials obtained from this contact
would be made available to the participating members of the pool.
Our goal is to spare the families repeated phone calls from various TV newsrooms and
from news teams "camped out" near their homes.
That a person dies or is missing in Operation Desert Storm is important news. But how
that person lived is equally important to the telling of a complete story. The purpose of
this pool reporting agreement is to provide coverage that is both thorough in scope and
thoughtful in its approach to the bereaved.
2. Guidelines
The pool is activated when any member station learns a family in the ADI has been
notified a service person has been killed or is missing, wounded, or taken prisoner.
Pool members will rotate responsibilities for contacting families. Contact will be made
as soon as possible after information becomes known to any member of the pool.
A one-time-only lottery will determine the rotation among stations for the duration of
the war.
If the family independently requests it be interviewed by a particular reporter, the pool
will honor that request, but the interview will still be part of the pool.
