Don't Tell Rupert, Don't Tell Tom

When the London bombings occurred, sue me, I turned to BBC Radio 4 and BBC World News on television. After all, the news was happening in their front yard. So I didn't get much of a chance, aside from dialing around and seeing that Fox was taking the Sky News feed and MSNBC was taking the ITV feed and CNN was insisting on more airtime for the bizarre Richard Quest, to compare their approach with ours. Fortunately, this guy did get the chance.

Not surprisingly, he preferred the BBC's approach--much like the approach of Londoners themselves, steeled by decades of experience, from the blitz to the IRA, of dealing with atrocious attacks. But here's the money section:

Michael Brody, a Washington psychiatrist, said he applauded the BBC coverage yesterday.

"I've been monitoring CNN and the BBC all day, and there's no doubt about it," said Brody, who heads the Television & Media Committee of the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry.

"American TV - particularly the all-news cable guys - is constantly hyping things up with talk of the potential for further attacks, while the BBC was trying to calm things down and reassure viewers that things were under control. As a psychiatrist, I have no doubt about the harmful effects of the former vs. the helpful effects of what I saw happening on the BBC."

Not fair, not balanced. Where's the countervailing view from Tom Cruise?