In a stunning departure from the usual "Dog: The Bounty Hunter" and repeats of "Crossing Jordan", A&E showed a fabulous documentary last night about women war correspondents called "Bearing Witness". I wasn't able to catch it all, but the good chunk of it I did catch was fascinating. I guess there is an upside to television the week after the CSI season finale after all.
All the women featured were interesting, from the one with an eye patch covering a war wound to the soon to be first time mother, but I found the story of the American working for Al-Jazeera particularly interesting. She talked about the benefits of being bi-racial working in her business, and I get the sense that what she put up with as a child was helping her deal with the hurtful remarks of colleagues about her motives. I admit, it does seem a bit odd to have an American working for Al-Jazeera, but then again, having a diverse group of people working for a news organization should lend it credibility.
My feeling about this doc wasn't that is was trying to send a message about who is right in war (specifically in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the Iraq war) but just to let the viewer in on the experience of the war correspondent, specifically, those who are women. However, I was somewhat disappointed (though perhaps not overly surprised) to see A&E's chatroom on this, with comments about how the doc was promoting propaganda. I think the point was missed.
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