War Sob Stories

Oh boo-hoo, enough already. Give us something we can use.

As the war continues in Israel, our TV news reporters are having a field day advancing their careers. Many of them are now broadcasting on the ground from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Gaza, in some instances even risking their lives to increase their employer's ratings back home and assure themselves of a healthy raise and possibly their own news show if and when this whole mess is over. And what's in it for us?

Much of the reporting, with one notable exception (Trey Yingst, FOX news), is little more than finding a family member who has suffered tremendously, either through the loss or capture of a loved one or personally, and asking them to recount the horror they have undergone. The reporter stands there holding the microphone while the bereaved interviewee cries on camera. Then the viewer, cosy and warm at home, is supposed to think the reporter is so talented and brave. I think intrusive, unfeeling, rude, nosy and insensitive is more accurate.

Personally I am already sick of these face-to-face interviews with the Israeli people whose lives have been shattered, and it's just getting started. I don't need to see any more of these sobfests to understand the situation there. Instead, I would love to see an interview with a member of Hamas. Now that would be interesting! A truly daring reporter could ask the following questions:

1. What terrible thing happened to you as a child that turned you into a monster?

2. When you decapitate a baby, do you look right at it or look away at the last minute?

3. Is it harder to murder a child or is it the same as killing an adult?

4. What's the best part of being a terrorist? The worst?

5. If you really look forward to death, why don't you just kill yourself right now?

6. What's the worst thing, in your opinion, about the Jews that make you want them all dead?

Now that would be some damn compelling reporting. Someone should tell Anderson Cooper.