Light Notes: Richland resident recalls ‘breaking news’ of 1981 Iran hostage’s freedom

They were free. After 444 days in captivity, 52 American hostages held by Iran since November 1979 had been released. The welcoming scene in Washington, D.C., was electric.

Holding the TV microphone close, the reporter waited, the White House her backdrop.

“I remember I prayed like crazy because I had to fill 10 minutes,” Janine Tartaglia Metcalf of Richland said about the live January 1981 broadcast for KNBC-TV, her Los Angeles station.

In Washington on assignment, once the camera began to roll, she would give viewers back home a taste of the scene — the ticker tape parade, President Ronald Reagan’s moving speech, 52 glittering lights to welcome the freed Americans. The smartly dressed young woman was accustomed to flying solo.

So, why would Janine pray and include God in this scenario?

Hadn’t she single-handedly climbed from a small-town reporter in Santa Maria, Calif., to a nightly anchor in one of the largest TV markets in the U.S.? Hadn’t this “twenty-something” interviewed presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and newly elected Ronald Reagan, and flown high with the Blue Angels?

Faith during her career hadn’t been part of her daily copy, religion left on the “cutting room floor.” Janine was accomplished, successful, the envy of any reporter on their way up — and she had done it on her own.

But then at the Burbank newsroom, her center shifted.

“One day I walked down the hallway to the Tonight Show set,” Janine said, remembering the news studio’s close proximity to the popular show. “I walked into the empty studio and sat at Johnny Carson’s desk. I thought to myself, ‘At last I’ve made it!’ Just to be able to sit there.”

In the quiet of the darkened room an indelible moment came to light.

“I had a crazy epiphany that I could have all this adulation and fame, and yet my life seemed empty,” said Janine about her life’s path. “And I sat there incredibly lonely because I’d poured everything into a career.”

Not long after, Janine fell abruptly from the pinnacle she had scaled. The firing of the news director — her supervisor — changed the newsroom hierarchy. Instead of sitting at the anchor desk, she was now a writer for the girl who took her place.

The experience was humbling, Janine said, and she began to question her purpose in life.

“I was assigned to interview the family of Gary Lee, one of the 52 hostages held by the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran,” Janine said, her interview tapes intended for an ongoing story on the Today Show.

“Earl Lee — Gary’s dad — happened to be the pastor of First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena. I was with them for 10 months, not knowing if their son was alive or dead. They exhibited for me such a genuine faith, something so real.”

Then in January 1981, word came from the State Department that when Ronald Reagan took office, the hostages would either be killed or released, Janine said. She was told by her news director to be at the Lee’s church on Sunday morning. If anything happened to the hostages, she would be there to cover the pastor’s reaction.

The news Janine heard from the church balcony held impact, but not what the reporter had anticipated.

“I’m there with my notebook in the worship service,” said Janine, as she recalled reporters from around the world and cameras nearby, all hoping for a story. “The pastor read from Isaiah 43, the first verses, ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; You are mine. ...’”

Janine said this scripture “pierced my heart” and led to the most dramatic moment of her life. Seated with her crew and national and international colleagues, Janine suddenly stood up.

“I sensed the reality of God’s holy presence, I couldn’t stay seated,” Janine said with emotion. “My cameraman looked at me and asked, ‘What do you want me to shoot?’ and I turned to him and said, ‘Something is happening to me.’ He turned to our audio guy and said, ‘Uh oh,’ ” Janine remembered with a smile.

The reporter knew God had definitely reached out to change her and “my heart wanted to admit I’m sorry, I put people and things before you,” Janine said.

Two days later, during the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, news broke that the hostages had been released. Janine was told to give her story to a New York NBC correspondent, complete with introductions to the Lee family.

Even so, Janine was now close friends with the pastor and his wife. On the day the hostages’ plane touched down in North Africa, she sat in the parsonage living room with Earl and Hazel, the house surrounded by reporters. The couple hadn’t heard from their son in six months.

“We were watching the live shot of the hostages getting off the plane in Algiers and there was their son with long hair and a beard,” Janine said, remembering his mother’s scream, the family’s joy and thankfulness.

A week later, Janine arrived in Washington, D.C., to cover the welcome home for Gary Lee and the other hostages. Knowing she would have 10 minutes of live airtime to fill, she asked Pastor Earl to join her at 8 o’clock sharp in front of the White House.

“Just as I began my report, a taxi comes screeching up with Pastor Earl and Gary,” a totally unexpected turn of events, said Janine. “I conducted the first live TV interview with a former hostage. For 45 minutes, Gary told about the torture, the solitary confinement, the mock executions; things the public hadn’t heard. It went out around the world.”

The interview defined what had happened to the hostages. News networks immediately picked up the report intended initially for the Los Angeles audience alone.

“I can remember later sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at 2 a.m. and thinking about the hostages being free,” Janine said. “And in my soul, I felt a sense of my being free.”

A year later, Janine changed course to follow her true calling. Today this former reporter stands before a microphone with different news: God’s unconditional love and hope.

It’s a message of freedom this Church of the Nazarene minister considers “breaking news.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Light Notes: Richland resident recalls ‘breaking news’ of 1981 Iran hostage’s freedom."