20 MAR 03: IRAQ, YOU ROCK, WE ALL ROCK
Today's top story on WRBL's 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. news was, of course - a deadly tornado in southwest Georgia, about 100 miles away from Columbus. Perhaps that station really DOES think the fighting in Iraq is a video game.
Perhaps WRBL figured viewers had their fill of warfare-related news, and needed something different. But I can't help wondering about this station. Sunday night at 11:00 p.m., after the Azores summit and the Presidential "moment of truth" announcement, WRBL led with the NCAA basketball pairings. [True!]
Our station had a "war plan," with my job (naturally) being to update the web site as warranted. I hurried in with a big bag of oranges I bought the other day, to share with the crew. Little did I know nobody else brought anything. The management didn't even open the stashed boxes of Meals-Ready-to-Eat.
I posted on a TV news message board how "Entertainment Tonight" might be covering the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom:
+ Jann Carl: "We are FIRST in our PRIME position on the Iraqi side of the border - and here comes Tommy Franks! EWWWWW!"
+ Maria Menounos: "While the soldiers prepared for battle, we watched how they prepared their outfits. We're counting down the five best-dressed battalions!"
+ Paula Abdul: "Oh-oh - NOW Simon's done it! Blair-bashing is coming up!"
Other thoughts on the beginning of the bombing of Baghdad:
+ Have you seen CBS's spinning of reporters' faces on the Evening News? Every time I see it, I want to add merry-go-round calliope music to it.
(Either that, or I wait for one of this squares to say "Bankrupt.")
+ If a reporter is going to do a live report wearing a gas mask at an "undisclosed location," why do we even bother to name him? Shouldn't we call him "Reporter X" like pro wrestlers?
+ Is it really a good idea for President Bush to call his allies a "Coalition of the Willing?" Those initials spell C-O-W.
+ A war protester in New York's Times Square was heard on ABC News shouting, "This war will be the last." Just wait till that person see what could be planned for North Korea....