CNN and Such

I've been watching the CNN coverage of the recent events in the mid-east pretty incessantly over the last few days, in part because I'm a junky for that sort of thing, in part because I have a buddy currently in Beirut and I'm concerned for his safety.

If you're reading this Ben, stay safe dude... keep away from the blowing up stuff.

Anyway, CNN's coverage has been pretty damn brilliant, and that's coming from someone who is a committed who is a committed old media critic and new media buff. They've been stressing the superiority of their coverage during the broadcast, which is kinda tasteless, but they've been doing a good job of covering news feeds from all sides and presenting a variety of images, as well as doing stuff like sending their Gaza City bureau down the street into a Gaza City bodega to interview the shopkeeper... which was a really interesting image/discussion.

One can't help but think the competition from the web, and from ideologically based platforms like fox news hasn't pressed them to make the best possible use of their resources for global coverage... the results (while still suffering from many old-media framing problems) are fascinating to watch.