Daniel Pearl

["Sean Smyth" <Sportswriter@dejazzd.com>]

As you probably have heard by now, U.S. government officials stated this
afternoon that Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, is dead.

I happened to be flipping the channels at about 5 or so and noticed CNN
going with wall-to-wall coverage. I stayed on there for the most part fo the
past few hours, flipping channels occasionally but noticing that CNN did not
get off this story. Now, at 8 or so, I've flipped to both FOX News and MSNBC
and I don't see anything on it.

A few weeks ago, when we received the first reports of Mr. Pearl's death,
Dan Billings speculated that the media may be sensationalizing the Pearl
case since it's one of their own. While deeply saddened to hear of his
death, and while feeling sympathy for his widow, unborn son and other family
members, after watching CNN's coverage I am leaning more in Dan's direction.

There were several other news stories out there today (including the Geoghan
sentencing and the Philippines helicopter crash) which got cursory mentions
from CNN all evening. Certainly the death of a news reporter, especially in
an instance where his death could possibly change the strategy other
reporters and media outlets take in covering the events in central Asia, is
a big story -- but should it have bumped everything else off the network?

What are everyone else's thoughts on this?