ConNiPtioNs

Some thoughts on news coverage of the war...

Those of us who are old enough to remember The Gulf War (Part I) have noticed a huge difference in the news. Instead of pool reporters filing stories which were then reported by all news outlets, the current "embedded" reporters are giving live reports from the battlefield.

I think that the best coverage on television, in terms of reporting and lack of propaganda, has been BBC. From what I've seen on BBC America they are not using fancy graphics and special music with war drums. They are actually reporting this as news, not as "the war show."

At the other end of the spectrum is Fox News, or as I like to refer to it--The US Department of Propaganda. I admit that I have not seen much of their coverarge, but what I've seen has been cheerleading for the US government. I saw one piece where they were calling peace demonstrators "un-American." As I write, the picture on their website is an American soldier handing food to an Iraqi child.

NBC/MSNBC has the most comprehensive coverage that I have seen. They are taking full advantage of their resources from NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and ITN. David Bloom and Kerry Sanders have given in-depth and descriptive reports from the battlefield, Peter Arnett's reports from Baghdad are excellent, and they have reporters covering the war from around the US, the Middle East, and Europe. The "Listening Post" section of their broadcast is very good; they see what news outlets from around the world are reporting and relay it every hour.

CNN also has a lot of reporters covering the war. Aaron Brown just get on my nerves with his editorial comments and attitude.

On the internet The Agonist somehow takes in many news reports and posts updates throughout the day. NPR has good coverage on the internet with links to their reports and live audio stream. Also, BBC has a lot info on their site.