News: Net outclasses TV war coverage
Stumbling our way through the fog of war, one conclusion is beyond dispute: The Internet has emerged as the best antidote to the numbing stupidity that passes for daily television coverage two weeks into America's battle with Iraq.

Before some coiffed curmudgeons accuse me of shilling for the medium where I practice my profession, I have the highest respect for embedded television reporters risking their lives to cover what arguably is an impossible assignment. But back at network central, it's a different story. Sitting by their studios, cheerleading anchors seem determined to outdo each other dumbing down the complexity of this historic conflict to the simplicity of a football match. John Madden meets Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf and we watch zombie-like as they call the big game.

Most people will no doubt continue to rely on television--here and around the globe--to make heads and tails of what's going on in a fast-moving, confusing conflict. More than a half a century of watching commercial television has unfortunately conditioned people to passively consume information, but change is afoot. After 9-11, the Internet emerged as a surprising source for people interested in context and a multiplicity of viewpoints. That is again proving the case. News sources and first-person accounts from both sides of the battlefield are available for the asking. And folks are saying: You know that when 'Al-Jazeera' overtakes 'sex' to become the most searched-for term on Lycos, we've passed some sort of Rubicon.

The Internet also puts an extra onus on Web surfers. Filtering out the noise and disinformation is not always easy. For example, one ongoing guessing game concerns the authenticity of the mysterious author of Where is Raed, a blog said to emanate from Baghdad. If he's on the up-and-up, Raed offers a fascinating insider's view of what it's like to sit through massive aerial bombardments. If it's a fraud, you know that Raed had a good long laugh getting us to tune in. (So, I should add, did television's Geraldo Rivera with his discoveryof Al Capone's vault.) For the record, the Raed blog hasn't been updated since March 24, one of the busiest days of the air war.

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