Bob Tur - Other Achievements

Other Achievements

Tur was credited by the Los Angeles Times with saving the lives of 54 people during a freak Southern California storm in January 1988. At the request of a local fire department, Tur piloted his AS-350B2 Eurocopter helicopter through 60-knot (110 km/h) winds, and driving rain, at night, to airlift stranded tourists from 22-foot (6.7 m) seas that pounded against their hotel, the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club in Redondo Beach. Timing the interval of the waves, Tur and his camera operator, Byron Alperstein, made a dozen near-zero visibility takeoffs and landings without losing a single victim. Both Tur and Alperstein received a number of awards for their heroism.

In August 2006, Tur was cited by Israeli medics for saving the life of a IDF soldier during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. During a Katyusha rocket attack, Tur, a trained medic and his high-definition television news crew came across a 19-year-old soldier trapped in his crushed vehicle. With the soldier unconscious and not breathing, Tur, who had been shooting a documentary for an American satellite news operation, performed an emergency tracheotomy, which restored his breathing. The rescue, which was caught on tape by his reporter, Dave Barker, aired as part of a news package focusing on the quality of life for the residents living on the Israeli-Lebanon border. Tur's cinematography, coupled with Barker's commentary, helped earn Cablevision the highly prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award. It was Tur's second Murrow.

Tur has also been credited for his work in copyright protection by proving that news photography is copyrightable because photographers exercise creative control over their photography by choosing the composition, focus, and exposure of the subject matter. To date, Tur and his ex-wife, Marika Gerrard have won seven United States 9th Circuit decisions dealing with intellectual property protection, establishing that news videotape is copyrightable, and a landmark victory that bars a "fair use" defense by an infringing news organization that copies the video images of another news organization and then broadcasts the work as their own. Tur and Gerrard's work in copyright are widely considered by legal experts as a series of major victories for creators of intellectual property, allowing writers, actors, producers, directors, and union members to be fairly compensated for their work.