Stardate 20011006.1410 (On Screen): Nothing's perfect. One of the disadvantages of a free press is that if there is no story to be reported, there's a strong impulse to make one. Wars are good to reporters; there's a lot going on and they get air time. It's enough to make someone go to a dreadfully uncomfortable place and risk their life; and many reporters have died doing it. But having gone to such a place and paid the price in terrible discomfort, there's a natural disappointment when it turns out that there's nothing to report. According to this, reporters have gone into the northern part of Afghanistan not controlled by the Taliban, in hopes of observing and reporting on the offensive that the Northern Alliance will be mounting Real Soon Now™. Only it's not happening, and the reporters are doing things like bribing the locals to fire their artillery pieces just so that pictures can be taken of them doing so (to be shipped back home again). This makes much more sense of that report
I criticized recently where the details didn't make any sense. Likely many of the events described in it never actually happened.
(discuss)
