from Instapundit.com
While news of Today's falling numbers is followed up by the promised questioning profile of Meredith Vieira's impact of that slide, courtesty of Howie Kurtz, this week ABC's Diane Sawyer is far, far removed from petty morning show bickering, reporting live from Afghanistan. TVNewser reports, per ABC, that Sawyer will be "talking to President Hamid Karzai, as well as to regular Afghani people about their lives."
Sawyer's timing isn't great, to say the least: Things in Afghanistan are not good, particularly for journalists. Last month, the Taliban kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo along with her driver and translator. Her driver was beheaded. Mastrogiacomo was subsequently released in a trade for five Taliban militants &mash; a move that was heavily criticized. After the deal was effected, more kidnappings ensued; today, news broke that the Taliban had executed Mastrogiacomo's translator, Ajmal Naqshbandi, a freelance journalist. When the government did not release the two prisoners demanded by the kidnappers, Naqshbandi was beheaded.
Meanwhile, yesterday 7 NATO troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Southern Afghanistan; on Friday, four were killed by a car bomb. It is widely acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan is spiraling pretty badly out of control.
Sawyer, who has reported from Afghanistan in the past a number of times, throws down the gauntlet somewhat to Katie Couric, who this summer memorably declared that she would be willing to report from war zones overseas if called for (it was memorable because Access Hollywood goofed the quote, instead saying she said she wouldn't go). Against what is happening there, silly tussling over a ratings point here or there hardly seems important (see the back-and-forth sniping quoted by Kurtz) — at this point we just send Sawyer and her crew hopes for a safe return.
Diane Sawyer in Afghanistan [TVNewser]
Related:
Vieira Adjusts to the View at Today [WaPo]
Taliban Hostage Swap: A Deal With The Devil [NYT]
