[SBE] Working the kinks out of EAS

[Edwin Bukont]

The formation of EAS goes back to when SBE Member Robert Greenberg was alive and a friend to broadcasters at the FCC.  

 

Bob came to the Chapter 37 meetings and was a delight when he would stand up and introduce himself to ask a question of some presenter who did not realize who was in the audience.

 

Although he saddly passed away long before 9/11, it his guidance that I am echoing, and which some here have correctly stated.  With regard to 9/11, I had checked this as well with Jim Farley, the VP News for WTOP, which is the F/T news station in the Nation's Capital.

 

EAS is NOT a News Service.  Not Nationally and not Locally.

 

EAS IS a Action Notification system.  Nationally and Locally.

 

It was CORRECTLY, NOT used on 9/11 for the following reason.

 

While we were attacked,  neither the nature of the attack nor what the public should do were known.  It is the NOT known that keeps the EAS from being used.  Therefore, while there was News,,,there was nothing in the way of necessary behavior to alert the public to do.  Thus the EAS was not used.

 

The purpose of EAS is NOT to say that we are under attack.

 

The purpose of EAS IS to say, "We have been attacked, AND the public is instructed by authorities to take the following ACTION...".

 

There was no reason to cause a mass hysteria by activating EAS on September 11, 2001.

 

There was no reason to cause a national panic for what, in spite of the tragedy, appeared initially to be an isolated local incident.

 

We have to subtract the emotion that built immediately after the events.  It's very easy in hind sight to compress the time and knowledge between events and ask how come we did or did not react in a certain way.  But since no one (except perhaps Mossad) had precognition of the events, when the first plane struck the tower that my family helped build, there was no indication of a terrorist attack.    I remember my father looking at the towers from directly across the Hudson and saying 'Why the hell would you build something so tall out so far on the island.  Some day some ass hole is going to fly a plane into one of them just to be an asshole'.   

 

Even after the second plane, which I got to watch come in and hit, there still was still nothing of an EAS nature.  Yes, it may have become clear we were under attack.  But the attack remains a news event, in part because we have such ubiquitous news coverage, but not an EAS event, until the situation has been assessed and a public action is necessary.  

 

That is the point when EAS is used, when the authorities need not to inform, but rather to get the attention of and to then direct the public to do something.  No inbound missiles has been launched.  In spite of what had just happened, there was no indication of a danger to the masses, and so therefore, no EAS.   Now, had the planes been trailing some unknown purple smoke that might be laced with poison as they approached, perhaps that would have been a reason to trigger the EAS locally once that reality was realized.

 

Had the EAS been activated, it actually would have interrupted the spread of news and the gathering of information while providing no new information nor any substantive directive from federal or local authorities.

 



Edwin Bukont CSRE, DRB, CBNT 
V- 240.417.2475; F- 240.368.1265 

 
 		 	   		  
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