WHAT EXACTLY IS THE POINT?

I guess I should ask Cablenewser, but why do the cable news nets bother to air a few minutes of the CPA daily brief, and only a few minutes of the daily brief? Fox (and they aren't atypical, I point to them because they're the ones who just did this) just showed a few minutes of Kimmitt's opening statement and before he was even done with the list of bad guys captured (which you'd think Fox would like) they cut away.

All that accomplishes is to symbolize coverage of the briefing, to demonstrate that Fox is aware of the briefing.

The cut away, by the way, typically occurs with the first question asked in Arabic, as if they assume if there's a twenty second gap in the action (since they still often can't provide simultaneous translation) we'll click away. (Alternatively, the anchors speak in English during the time a question is being asked in Arabic, even if they're gibbering, just so there isn't silence.)

MS this morning is providing translation. And covering the briefing. Good for them (although they're almost always the one that covers the most of any live event -- maybe because they have the weakest coverage to go back to.)

Oops. They cut to commercial before I'd finished typing the sentence. And you wonder why my writing is full of qualifiers.