Re: CNN claims reporters targeted

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 05:43 AM 4/11/2003 -0400, Sean Smyth wrote:
>My question is this: is it right for CNN to be making itself the story here?
>Undoubtedly, all U.S. journalists were targets at some point of the Iraqi
>regime. (snip)


In that sense, it should be interesting when Dick Gordon starts 
broadcasting NPR's "The Connection" live from Baghdad next 
Monday.  According to Bob Oakes during this morning's fundraising, Dick 
leaves for Baghdad tonight.

Is it my imagination, or is this really little more than a publicity 
stunt?  What does Dick hosting the show from Baghdad really bring us?  The 
impression I got wasn't that he was taking any sort of studio with 
him...sounded more like he was basically hosting the show as if he were a 
caller; just him on his satellite phone.  How does that really give us any 
more of the story from Iraq that we aren't already getting from lots of 
other journalists...including WBUR's own Michael Goldfarb?

For that matter, is it my imagination or is The Connection really getting 
away from its original focus (the callers talking about an issue) and 
turning into an awful hybrid of "Talk of the Nation" and "All Things 
Considered"?



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Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA