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PIECING TOGETHER THE AIDS QUILT STORY:
A MICRO-ANALYSIS OF THE INTERACTION OF TELEVISION NEWS'
VISUAL AND VERBAL TEXTS
Steven Konick
Blake B-116
Department of Communication
SUNY-Geneseo
1 College Circle
Geneseo, NY 14454-1401
(716) 245-5229
[log in to unmask]
Submitted to the Visual Communication Division
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Washington, D.C.
August 9-12, 1995
PIECING TOGETHER THE AIDS QUILT STORY:
A MICRO-ANALYSIS OF THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TELEVISION NEWS' VISUAL AND
VERBAL TEXTS
ABSTRACT
This study reveals how television news creates meaning through the
interaction of visual and verbal texts. It presents a close-reading of one
visually interesting story about the AIDS quilt. This story is
remarkable
in its use of a more elaborate visual script than typically shown on
network newscasts. Especially elaborate are the attempts to achieve visual
narrative diachronicity. This study also notes that often the link
between
iconic images and text supports stereotypes.
In recent years, scholars in growing numbers have delved into matters
which attempt to link the content of television news to larger societal
questions in an effort to understand how the mass media both reflect
and
create culture. In order to accomplish this, researchers have been
forced
to find new tools with which to analyze television news texts. Simple
content analysis techniques, while still useful, do not afford the
opportunity for a deep reading of content, the kind necessary to explore
television news (and other cultural artifacts) beyond a manifest
level.
Furthermore, much of the available television news research ignores the
very essence of what makes television dramatically different from its
companion electronic medium, radio: visual texts. With few exceptions,
television news' visual texts and the manner in which they interact with
verbal texts has been largely ignored. Perhaps this is because of
journalism's start as a textual medium rather than a visual one.
Nevertheless, without an understanding of the interaction between these two
different but related forms of communication, attempts to assess how
meaning is created via television news cannot be fully successful. Thus,
this study's dual intent is to deeply explore a single news story in
order
to draw some indication of how American culture portrays AIDS and to
microanalyze the script to determine how visual and verbal texts interact
with one another.
Visual analysis and television news texts
It almost goes without saying that in American society today, we are
bombarded by visual texts. On a daily basis, we are bombarded with
imagery,
some of it familiar icons from the past which lack grounding in today's
culture. Some researchers say that as a culture, we are endlessly
circulating imagery (signs)
-- signs moreover which have lost all signifying capacity, all meaning
in the traditional sense of the representation of the real.
(Brantlinger, 1990, p. 173)
There is some indication that the Twentieth Century has moved us from a
verbally-based culture to one for whom visual data is of paramount
importance.
For some seventy years the cleverest prophets have warned us regularly
that the dominant art form of the twentieth century was not
literature at all -- nor even painting or theater or the symphony --
but rather the one new and historically unique art invented in
the
contemporary period, namely film; that is to say, the first
distinctively mediatic art form. (Jameson, 1991, p. 68)
Jameson's comments could easily be extended to the realm of television,
which borrows many of its conventions from the cinema.
Broadcast TV adopted the studio production methods that were developed
in the classic Hollywood cinema, and imitated by film industries
everywhere. (Ellis, 1982, p. 211)
Obviously, the number of Hollywood studios that are involved in both the
cinema and television programming indicates that the two fields are
interrelated, even permanently conjoined. While Ellis points out that there
are substantial differences between the two, he indicates that they are
primarily financial in orientation, with television being more
immediately
concerned with the bottom line.
But there are more differences than meet Ellis' eye -- aesthetic
differences in the professional codes of television, and more specifically,
differences in the visual codes of television news versus prime-time
programming. Most research conducted on the visual analysis of television
news has concentrated on manifest content or audience interpretations
of
messages. The influence of camera angle and subject expressions and
actions
on audience interpretation of the camera's subject has been studied
(Mandell and Shaw, 1973), as well as the effect that camera angle has on
source credibility (Tiemans, 1970; McCain, Chilberg and Wakshlag,
1977).
These studies concluded that camera shots taken from above eye level
connote subject weakness, while those taken from below looking up toward
the subject monumentalize the subject. McCain, et al. (1977) argue,
however, that camera shots facing the subject directly and from a slightly
elevated position put the subject in a more positive light. Using this
technique, the audience views the subject at almost eye level, and thus,
psychologically, as an equal.
While the above-mentioned studies provide some data to simplify analysis
of visuals, their methods tend to present visual stimuli in a context
foreign to the television experience. Just as one is unlikely to watch a
movie with the sound turned off, television news audiences are
expected to
both listen to the audio track and watch the video. But visuals are
not
merely interesting pictures to accompany words. Visuals can be used to
create new and alternative narratives within the confines of the news
report. They can be used to confirm or deny the stories being told
verbally
by the newscaster. It is necessary to look at overall story presentation
to determine how images create a new narrative or support an existing
one
in the audio track, and how the news package reflects American
culture.
With the advent of our increasingly visually-oriented society, Jameson
argues that the methods which have been employed to analyze visual
texts
(mostly linguistic in orientation) are antiquated, and must be
improved.
The visual can no longer take a back seat to the verbal in analysis of
visual-aural texts. While Jameson's text concentrates primarily on what
he
calls, "video art," a search of available literature indicates that
there
is little available research on the visual texts of television news.
Thus,
we are left with the need to devise new strategies for analysis of
television texts; strategies which incorporate, rather than ignore, the
visual.
In most television news research, one of two paths could be taken to
interpret television form, the conventional and the organic (Barton and
Gregg, 1982). Most researchers emphasized the conventional -- the
technical
processes shaping the news story (camera angle, size of shot) -- while the
organic form suggests something more intangible; the underlying principles
directing content toward a particular construction of meaning. In essence,
there exists within the encoder's deliberate structurings evidence of a
specific pattern in the way news facts coalesce in packages. In
speaking
about television news coverage of conflict in Northern Ireland, Stuart
Hall
points out that, from the perspective of a journalist, you
...can't develop an account of it out of absolutely nowhere every time
you tell the story. You constantly draw on the inventory of
discourses which have been established over time. I think in that
sense we make an absolutely too simple and false distinction
between
narratives about the real and narratives of fiction. (Hall, 1984,
p.
6)
Put another way, narrative inevitably imposes constraints on the content of
a broadcast news story.
The verbal, then, functions on the side of continuity and
intelligibility, the visual on the side of heterogeneity and semantic
dispersion. (Robinson, 1984, p. 202)
When critics describe television news as "radio with pictures," it
belittles the richness of meanings created within the visual 'text,' as
well as the interplay between visual and aural texts. Because
television
news stories constitute a complex set of traditions, aural as well as
visual, it is important that research assimilate these in some fashion.
One exception to the available research is a 'microscopic...formal'
analysis of news presentation of Middle East conflict. Barton and Gregg
(1982) examined one week of coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian
controversy
in 1978. The authors state that certain visual and textual production
techniques allow television journalists to convey authority and to
maintain
the authenticity of a news story. Further, the authors suggest that the
construction of news stories serves to emphasize the future, as well
as an
expectation among viewers that such journalistic "predictions" are
linked
to immediate events being reported. When media predictions come true,
"an
aura of authoritativeness can redound throughout the forms of future
prediction" (Barton and Gregg, op.cit., p. 180). One of their most
important conclusions is that reporters employ specific visual imagery to
achieve journalistic balance. This implies that the visual text
presents
information that is complementary, but not necessarily supportive, of
the
verbal texts. Although the intention behind the research was to
provide a
unified analysis of the visual and aural texts, it subsequently
separates
them into two barely-merged sets of data that only come together
temporarily near the end of the essay.
Visual analysis of television news is based, to a great extent, on studies
of motion pictures. Most of the motion picture studies analyze each image,
its relationship to others and the culture in which it was created. Images
are merely referents to an existing object (Barthes, 1968; Bennett, 1982),
and these referents come with "extra baggage," allowing audiences the
ability to interpret them within their specific cultural framework.
Images
have a surface (denotative) meaning and several layers of deeper (
connotative) meaning. Members of a given culture learn how to decode in a
manner consistent with their culture:
The image is experienced as both an optical and mental phenomenon. The
optical pattern is read saccadically; the mental experience is the
result of the sum of cultural determinants, and is formed by it.
(Monaco, 1981, p. 144).
From a researcher's point of view, the meaning of an image-text, to be
fully understood, must be explored within the cultural context presented
and not merely interpreted at surface level.
It is hypothesized that the desire for narrative closure (tying up the
loose ends of a story) in the aural script should also be evident in
the
visual script. Curtin (1993) describes how closely early television
news
documentaries followed the presentational techniques in movies.
The shooting styles and editing techniques of Hollywood were closely
observed so that the network documentary would come across to its
audience as a realist text, a "natural" representation of the
everyday
world. (p. 29)
Using the cinema as the basis for visual analysis of television news, it
seems evident that most television news stories should follow a
pattern
which Shook (1989) calls the mini-movie. In this view of television
news,
the visual text moves from an expository beginning (long shot --
stating
the problem) through a series of conflicts (medium shots and close-ups
allowing the principals to tell the story) which conclude in a
resolution,
possibly in the form of a long shot to return us to the starting
point.
In aural narrative, temporal and locational transitions are simple to
create, but the same cannot be said for visual narrative. Even though
there
may be distinct transitions between shots (via cuts, dissolves, fades, or
wipes) discrete images may be linked together in a syntagma, creating
a
"seamless" presentation describing a particular object in time (Metz,
1974).
Much in the spirit of Manoff (1989), this essay will present the visual
and aural text of the television news report, "breaking into the flow"
(p.
62) to point out significant images and textual strategies. The
package I
have selected to evaluate is an extraordinary one in the way it
characterizes persons with AIDS, their family members and friends. There is
a hint of compassion that is often missing in other stories. Also, the
story develops a visual narrative in a manner that is highly
diachronic. It
effortlessly weaves visual texts and subtexts throughout the package,
moving viewers through various event times via flashbacks defined by
slow
dissolves. The standard cut from scene to scene which is more typical
within television news is used primarily during the opening sequences
when
the story is being set up and defined.[1]
Analysis
The package begins as all do, with the anchorperson (Connie Chung) sitting
in front a world map, a setting which implies that NBC news "covers the
world" and that we can be better informed through its newscast.
CC: Reports about the AIDS virus and its terrible toll in human
lives seem to always be with us.
In truth, there is no AIDS virus. AIDS is the result of a series of
infections brought on when the body's immune system has been weakened by
Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV). HIV is a virus; AIDS is the
resultant
syndrome. While all persons with AIDS are HIV-positive, not all
HIV-positive persons have AIDS. "AIDS virus" is a short-cut term that
journalists and others use to (improperly) categorize people who have
full-blown AIDS.
CC: What's rarely reported and hard to depict is the awesome
courage of many of those victims who, until the end, work to
relieve the pain of others.
The choice of words here implies a defensive posture. It seems to be a
convenient explanation or excuse for why coverage of AIDS had been
criticized by many as incomplete. It also points out journalism's
difficulty explaining abstract or non-concrete attributes (such as
courage). The end of this sentence implies that death is the inevitable
consequence of AIDS.
CC: Now a group called the Names Project has found a way to build
a continuing memorial to those victims, and it was unveiled last
night. Lucky Severson has more from Los Angeles.
More language is presented indicating the inevitability of death. Now,
however, we have a concrete icon to show the abstraction -- the quilt.
CROWD SINGS: "REACH OUT AND TOUCH, SOMEBODY'S HAND_"
The camera pans left across the crowd, while the crowd chants the Motown
classic in unison and holds hands. There is a feeling of religion and
spirituality in this section of the story.
There's never been anything like it.
This simple statement places AIDS among the most wide-ranging and deadly
medical crises in history. To spawn such a gathering, there must be a
wide
spectrum of people affected by AIDS.
Friends, sisters, brothers, lovers, mothers, fathers, surrounded by an
overwhelming expression of love and sorrow.
The visuals in this package are a very literal interpretation of the verbal
text. A woman is shown, the text mentions "sisters." Two men embrace and
they are loosely defined as either "brothers" or "lovers" (although they
could be friends or strangers caught up in the emotion of the
situation).
An older woman and an older man embrace while the narration refers to
"mothers" and "fathers" -- they may not be either. The narration is
almost
poetic, forcing the audience to consider the sheer number of people
affected, and more significantly, the apparent similarities to themselves.
A quilt of memories so large, pieced together it would cover three
football fields. It brings to life the death it symbolizes. It's
a
collection of 4-thousand panels ...
The first two sentences personify the quilt, giving it human attributes and
emphasizing the magnitude of the epidemic. The second sentence is
particularly interpretive; it is unusual for a television news package.
During the second sentence, the visuals portray two men looking down
at the
quilt. One is crying. These images reinforce the emotional stance taken
by the verbal text.
each one remembering
A three shot syntagma begins here by giving names and characterizations to
those individuals who have died of AIDS.
a victim of the impersonal epidemic we call AIDS.
The verbal text suggests that there are people behind the cold mortality
statistics reported on AIDS. Visually, they are seen as people who
led
normal lives. Thus, the quilt panels, as shown in the story, tell
stories
at a personal, more empathetic level.
Each one stitched together by those who shared the pain ...
Not only are PWAs affected by AIDS, their friends, relatives and lovers
"share the pain." This sentence makes it clear that they are
indirectly
connected to the epidemic and also suffer because of the disease. A
dissolve midway through this text signals a transition from the quilt in
its finished state to images of people constructing the quilt. The
dissolve serves as a flashback device. A four shot syntagma reflecting the
memories of those affected begins in the second part of this text.
like Helen Claire Cox.
Now, the story becomes firmly entrenched in the personal. Personal stories
are presented to allow the audience to put "faces" on the suffering loved
ones, thus increasing empathy, or at minimum, interest in the story.
HC: Gosh, I remember when he_that was the most exciting moment of his
life.
Her son Andy was a Continental flight attendant who fought to stay
alive and he made his fight public on stage and television to give
other AIDS victims courage, his mother always by his side.
AC:I knew my mother was pretty strong, but I didn't realize how
strong.
Andy died last year, but his mom ...
In the verbal part, the audience is presented with a flashback through
Helen Claire Cox' memories of her son. Viewers are brought deeper into
the
past when Andy is actually seen and heard. Once again, the reporter
chooses the words "courage", "fight" and "fought" to describe what PWAs
and
their loved ones face. Andy Cox refers to his mother's "strength" in
adverse times. Visually, the dissolve, which starts with Severson's
narration, puts the story back further in time to when Andy Cox was still
alive. The style of narration (using flashbacks) emphasizes that the
quilt
seems to bring people back to life, in a metaphorical sense. Here, Andy
Cox is brought back to life via videotape excerpts within the news
report.
Shown are his activism and his relationship to his mother.
... is still fighting. The quilt is important to her.
With a quick statement and a cut to Helen Claire Cox working on the quilt,
the audience is returned to the first flashback wherein the PWA is
dead and
his loved ones are remembering him via the quilt. The phrasing in
relation to the visuals is very significant here. Severson mentions Cox's
mother, and we are visually returned to the original flashback in time
to
hear Severson say she "is still fighting."
HC:It has pulled a lot of people together to work on something
that's really inspiring and I think can reach out to touch
the
whole country. (pauses_crying) I think it's a really neat
thing.
I wish Andy was here to share it.
A new syntagma brings the story back to the "present." The quilt section
has been completed. Verbally, we have the completion (closure) of
Andy
Cox's story. Helen Claire Cox broadens the perspective, reminding the
audience that AIDS touches "the whole country" and the implication is
that
viewers should be sympathetic. The audience should "share it." Her
crying
adds emotional impact. The phrase "reach out and touch" (used in the
chant/song at the beginning of the story) is echoed here.
AF:It's something nice that's_that we're doing about him and for
him. Annabel and Jerry Fried had a remarkable little boy
who
loved trains. They called him Zack.
Visually, an abrupt shift occurs here to focus on another panel. This is
signaled via a new camera angle and the presence of a new quilt panel.
Verbally, the term "remarkable" is a sign-post that indicates how Zack
should be interpreted. The expectation is that the story will explain
why
he is remarkable soon, which it does. In referring to Zack's love of
trains, the specific is once again called upon to put a more familiar and
sympathetic face on what would otherwise be just another child, or
just
another PWA.
He was born premature and had several operations. The day after they
were told he was finally going to be alright, they found out a
blood
transfusion had infected him with AIDS.
The explanation for why Zack is "remarkable" is provided. These statements
also suggest that he is among those in the category of "innocent victim".
The verbal text is complimented by a three-shot syntagma, which flashes
the story back to the life of the child, one not unlike any other
child,
given this visual evidence.
AF: Every single moment is worse. Waking up in the morning is worse
-- than not having him there to read a story to at night -- is
worse
than not having him there at lunchtime -- is worse than not
having him
there all the time -- is worse than working on the quilt.
This quote speaks to the hopelessness and frustration caused by their
inability to do anything for Zack and the fact that they miss him.
Working
on the quilt allows them to make him seem alive again, bringing them close
once again. Visually, the close-up of Annabel Fried heightens the
emotional impact.
JF: Also, there's something mechanically alive about a quilt. It
doesn't stay there like a stone wall. It ...
The story takes a dramatic turn at this point. Annabel Fried's quote spoke
to the frustration and anguish of missing Zack (as representative of PWAs
in this story). Suddenly, Jerry Fried provides a spiritually-upbeat
explanation of what the quilt does for them in a
psychologically-therapeutic way. He compares the quilt to memorials
that
are made of stone -- the quilt is not immovable.
JF:... flutters in the breeze, it does tricks when you pick it up --
it's alive, and that means something to me.
A dissolve takes viewers into a shot which shows the animated qualities of
the quilt while Jerry Fried eloquently describes them. Visually, the
quilt
flows over air currents -- it is alive.
MUSIC UP AND UNDER: VOICES SINGING REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEBODY'S
HAND
A dissolve takes the audience out of Zack's story and back to where the
report started. A panel is installed in the quilt while the "Reach Out
and
Touch Somebody's Hand" theme is echoed a third time.
The quilt is going on a fund-raising tour to 20 cities around the
country.
The news peg, unusually, is here at the end of the story.
Those who have felt the pain hope to get us all involved -- to put a
face on suffering that ...
The final images are of mutual compassion, sympathy and understanding. The
phrase "get us all involved" reminds the audience that this is mostly
happening to "them" not "us." In other words, we are not involved (but
should be -- at least through empathy). "Putting a face on suffering"
summarizes the intent of the story. The package does put faces to the
statistics.
... seems unending. Lucky Severson, NBC News, Los Angeles.
The end of the statement implies that the times are not getting any better
-- the epidemic continues to spread.
MUSIC CRESCENDO UP AND OUT
The story ends with an emotional and musical crescendo.
Conclusions
Severson's story is hardly a classic example of the broadcast journalism
typically presented by ABC, CBS and NBC. It is, in fact, remarkable
in its
attempt to present its subjects in a sympathetic manner through the use of
sophisticated visual techniques. These also serve to emphasize changes in
the story's diachronic flow.
Kozloff (1987) notes that there are two different time discourses at work
within television news broadcasts; real time (the moment that the
audience
receives the message) and event time (the moment the event actually
took
place). This story operates within three distinct time periods. There
is
the present, as defined by the time in which the reporter is narrating
events, and there are two levels of the past. Specifically, a double
flashback sequence takes the story from the "present" into the past (a
dead
PWA's parent creates a quilt section) and then further, into a time period
when the PWA is still alive and interacting with the principals in the
"present" story. Each change in time is accompanied by a dissolve.
It is noted that at times, the need to link iconic images with text
creates potential misunderstandings, as noted in the opening sequence of
the field report. Here, people are conveniently labelled according to
appearance -- assumptions that may be incorrect. An older couple are
labelled as parents, although they may not be. Two men hug, clearly
saddened by a particular quilt section; they are referred to as brothers
or
lovers. Such short-cuts may be inevitable in television news' version of
storytelling.
Even though it has many of the same problems as typical television news
packages, this particular package presents a variation on television
news'
traditional approach to storytelling. It affords the viewer the
opportunity
to get more deeply involved in the text. Thus, we must evaluate it as a
new variant of television news storytelling, one which is flashier and
perhaps more likely to maintain an audience's attention. SCRIPT
CU CC IN FRONT OF WORLD MAP
PAN LEFT ACROSS CROWD HOLDING HANDS, SWAYING IN
UNISON.
MS 3-SHOT, A WOMAN IS CRYING, TWO MEN LOOK TOWARD HER
SYMPATHETICALLY. THEY ARE HOLDING ONE ANOTHER.
MS 2 MEN EMBRACE
2-SHOT, WELL DRESSED WOMAN AND MAN EMBRACE
LS 3 MEN LOOK SADLY AT QUILT ON FLOOR
SAME 3 MEN FROM BEHIND. MAN IN CENTER HAS ARMS
AROUND OTHER TWO.
PAN AND TILT ACROSS QUILT SECTIONS ON FLOOR
WS 2 MEN LOOK DOWN. QUILT NOT VISIBLE. ONE CRIES
AND WIPES TEARS WITH CLOTH.
WS 2 MEN FROM BEHIND LOOK DOWN AT QUILT.
CU QUILT PANEL SAYS ZACK
CU QUILT PANEL SAYS MIKE WOOLRIDGE. 7-POINTED GOLD
STAR AND THE NUMBER 737 ON IT.
CU QUILT PANEL SAYS ANDREW HIATT.
DISSOLVE TO WS HC AND MAN WORKING ON QUILT PANEL
OUTDOORS.
CU HC
CU HAND ATTACHES PIN WITH WORDS ANDREW AND CALIFORNIA
WRITTEN ON IT
WS QUILT WITH PIN AND OTHER MEMENTOS ATTACHED
DISSOLVE TO MS ANDY ON STAGE. CAMERA FOLLOWS TO LEFT
AS OTHER MAN WALKS ON.
ANDY AND HC IN 2-SHOT ON A "MORNING SHOW" SET
CU HC
CU ANDY
WS ANDY, HC OUTDOORS
HC AND MAN IN WS CONSTRUCT QUILT
CU ANDY'S QUILT SECTION
MS 2-SHOT HC AND MAN
MS FROM ABOVE WOMAN STUFFS QUILT SECTION, ZOOM OUT
TO WS.
2-SHOT WS AF AND JF CONSTRUCT QUILT (LOW ANGLE)
WS 4 PEOPLE WORK ON ZACK QUILT SECTION
BLACK & WHITE CU PHOTO OF ZACK IN FIREMAN'S HELMET
DISSOLVE TO CU PHOTO ZACK (B&W)
DISSOLVE TO CU PHOTO ZACK PLAYING
CU AF
2-SHOT MS AF/JF
DISSOLVE TO WS FROM ABOVE OF QUILT BEING PICKED UP
AND ROTATED
DISSOLVE TO WS 2 PEOPLE LAYING NEW SECTION OF QUILT
CU 2 MEN IN SILHOUETTE EMBRACING
CU MAN WITH HAND ON CHIN IN SILHOUETTE
WS HC WALKS UP, EMBRACES MAN AT QUILT SHOWING.
CC: REPORTS ABOUT THE AIDS VIRUS AND ITS TERRIBLE
TOLL IN HUMAN LIVES SEEM TO ALWAYS BE WITH US.
WHAT'S RARELY REPORTED AND HARD TO DEPICT IS THE
AWESOME COURAGE OF MANY OF THOSE VICTIMS WHO,
UNTIL THE END, WORK TO RELIEVE THE PAIN OF OTHERS.
NOW A GROUP CALLED THE NAMES PROJECT HAS FOUND A
WAY TO BUILD A CONTINUING MEMORIAL TO THOSE
VICTIMS, AND IT WAS UNVEILED LAST NIGHT. LUCKY
SEVERSON HAS MORE FROM LOS ANGELES.
VOX: (CROWD SINGS) REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEBODY'S
HAND...
LS: THERE'S NEVER BEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT.
FRIENDS, SISTERS,
BROTHERS, LOVERS,
MOTHERS, FATHERS
SURROUNDED BY AN OVERWHELMING EXPRESSION OF
LOVE AND SORROW.
A QUILT OF MEMORIES SO LARGE, PIECED TOGETHER IT
WOULD COVER THREE FOOTBALL FIELDS. SO PERSONAL,
IT BRINGS TO LIFE
THE DEATH IT SYMBOLIZES.
IT'S A COLLECTION OF 4-THOUSAND PANELS,
EACH ONE REMEMBERING
A VICTIM OF THE IMPERSONAL EPIDEMIC WE CALL AIDS.
EACH ONE STITCHED TOGETHER
BY THOSE WHO SHARED THE PAIN.
LIKE HELEN CLAIRE COX.
HC: GOSH, I REMEMBER WHEN HE...
THAT WAS THE MOST EXCITING MOMENT IN HIS LIFE.
LS: HER SON ANDY WAS A CONTINENTAL FLIGHT
ATTENDANT WHO FOUGHT DESPERATELY TO STAY ALIVE AND
HE MADE HIS FIGHT PUBLIC ON
STAGE AND TELEVISION TO GIVE OTHER AIDS VICTIMS
COURAGE,
HIS MOTHER ALWAYS BY HIS SIDE.
AC: I KNEW MY MOTHER WAS PRETTY STRONG, BUT I
DIDN'T REALIZE HOW STRONG.
LS: ANDY DIED LAST YEAR BUT HIS MOM
IS STILL FIGHTING. THE QUILT IS IMPORTANT TO HER.
HC: IT HAS PULLED A LOT OF PEOPLE TOGETHER TO WORK
ON SOMETHING
THAT'S REALLY INSPIRING AND I THINK CAN REACH OUT
TO TOUCH THE WHOLE COUNTRY. (PAUSE -- CRYING) I
THINK IT'S REALLY A NEAT THING. I WISH ANDY WAS
HERE TO SHARE IT.
AF: IT'S SOMETHING NICE THAT'S...THAT WE'RE DOING
ABOUT HIM AND FOR HIM.
LS: ANNABEL AND JERRY FRIED HAD A REMARKABLE
LITTLE BOY
WHO LOVED TRAINS. THEY CALLED HIM ZACK.
HE WAS BORN PREMATURE AND HAD SEVERAL OPERATIONS.
THE DAY AFTER
THEY WERE TOLD HE WAS FINALLY GOING TO BE ALRIGHT,
THEY FOUND OUT
A BLOOD TRANSFUSION HAD INFECTED HIM WITH AIDS.
AF: EVERY SINGLE MOMENT IS
WORSE. WAKING UP IN THE MORNING IS WORSE THAN NOT
HAVING HIM THERE TO READ A STORY TO AT NIGHT IS
WORSE THAN NOT HAVING HIM THERE AT LUNCHTIME IS
WORSE THAN NOT HAVING HIM THERE ALL THE TIME IS
WORSE THAN WORKING ON THE QUILT.
JF: ALSO THERE'S SOMETHING MECHANICALLY ALIVE
ABOUT A QUILT. IT DOESN'T STAY THERE LIKE A STONE
WALL. IT
FLUTTERS IN THE BREEZE, IT DOES TRICKS WHEN YOU
PICK IT UP -- IT'S ALIVE, AND THAT MEANS SOMETHING
TO ME.
MUSIC UP AND UNDER:
VOX SINGING REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEBODY'S HAND
LS: THE QUILT IS GOING ON A FUND-RAISING TOUR TO
20 CITIES AROUND THE COUNTRY.
THOSE WHO HAVE FELT THE PAIN HOPE TO GET US ALL
INVOLVED --
TO PUT A FACE ON SUFFERING THAT
SEEMS UNENDING. LUCKY SEVERSON, NBC NEWS, LOS
ANGELES.
MUSIC CRESCENDO UP AND OUT
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[1] The package aire
d on NBC on 4/9/88. A full script is included at the
end of t
he paper.
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