War Coverage
-- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/21/2003
Editor: I disagree with Harry A. Jessell's March 31 column, in which he criticized the TV networks use of video in their war coverage. I want to remind him that the producers of TV news in this war are turning around feeds from throughout the Middle East at a frenetic pace to give Americans the latest news in a 24/7 world. Would you rather they not show moving images of explosions, tank movements, the rush for food? Would you rather they just use stills? (By the way, that picture from the Los Angeles Times was terrific. I mean, combining two pictures into one. Is that what you mean about a great still shot?)
For the editor of a newsweekly to encourage still photographs in newscasts is the best way to advise your client base of station managers and news directors how to lose an audience. By the way, did you see the rapping Marine? That really isn't the same in a still, is it? For me, it was one of the stirring moments of this war.
I watch the coverage of this war 12 hours a day, and, luckily, I was a Nielsen household last month. I am proud of my colleagues, their work, their grace under fire. When NBC's Bob Arnot spoke to those young Iraqi children in the streets outside Baghdad, I got chills. He is my human connection. He is making this real for me. He is giving me a greater understanding.
Kathleen Sullivan, Palm Springs, Calif.
(Sullivan was one of CNN's first anchors)
