June 14, 2005
CNN's Finest
Can I just say what a fan B.D. is of Christiane Amanpour? I'm in the Caucasus now, catching her just shy of 10 PM local interviewing Iranian Presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani. She's head and shoulders over so many other journalists (let alone television journalists) who'd be stumbling and clueless conducting such an interview. Truly a class act. Her remarkable coverage of Bosnia in the mid-90s--judicious yet passionate, courageous yet never reckless, gracious yet gung-ho, go-getting--it truly stands out as one of CNN's finest moments. Pity the channel has been grotesquely dumbed-down (especially in the U.S.). Still, Amanpour and a few others still make it worth watching now and again--especially when overseas.
P.S. Even Christiane almost seemed to lose her game face when Rafsanjani intoned: "Iran, more than any other country, has fought terrorism." Pretty rich fare...
P.P.S. While I'm on the subject of gutsy, talented women: how 'bout a shout out to Natasha Kandic? Her moral (and physical) courage in the face of the gross excesses of Serbian nationalism through the 90s and to the present day (she was the key person who released the recently aired Srebrenica tape) has been truly remarkable. Chapeau, as they say.
Posted by Gregory at June 14, 2005 11:24 AM
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Hear, hear (on Natasa Kandic, Amanpour, and on CNN's decline). But esp. on the extraordinary Kandic.
Surely you jest about Christine Amanpour, or at the very least should concede that the evidence is mixed in support of your encomium. You need only to google her name to get the other side, and it isn't pretty - not least her phony claim that CNN was intimidated by the White House is reporting on the original Irac invasion.
Her personal background should definitely give her a leg up in reporting on Iran. Was the interview in Farsi or English?
