the brink of exhaustion?

Well. I guess Hala finally gave.

After more than a month in Lebanon, wearing the same set of outfits, seems to have affected Ms. Gorani. Okay, the outfits are probably the last thing in her set of priorities, but still. The weight loss, the endless hours of coverage... I sincerely hope she's getting some much-needed rest.

Then I move on to more shallow ranting.

Questy anchoring in Atlanta and Hala's nowhere in sight. This is not good for one who yearns for the Hala-Richard days of BizNews. Please, CNN, throw some old-school fans a bone and put these two together. One hour, hour and a half, two hours, anything. They miss each other, I know it, and I for one miss them together.


After months of having to work while CNN is broadcast from London, I was confined to bed last week, and it's finally hit me that Andrea Sanke's gone. Gone! It sucks. She was a pretty good anchor, not my favorite (duh), but still a good one. I mean... I don't know. Losing Liz George was at least a gradual departure. Although that's a CNN departure I still haven't quite gotten over.
I take comfort that Robyn Curnow was on MainSail and is just pregnant. Yes, she's not the best anchor CNN's got, but she can make the most random news bit seem worthwhile. As a reporter.


And: so that's where Christiane Amanpour disappeared to a few months ago.

Come on, CNN. Hala-Questy on Your World Today. Come on.

the press can sit this one out

Title borrowed from Stephen Colbert. I use not without sarcasm.


Someone's beefing up her CV.

I think that: She wasn't supposed to be part of the entourage, but she was already in the region, and might as well be put to good use.

I have to say, though, while she doesn't exactly look the part of War Correspondent, Hala seems to be fitting in pretty well. Yes, she can never look like she's been sleeping in bunkers or the sort (see the SNL short with Catherine Zeta-Jones for an exaggerated version of this perspective), but Hala is faring well in war coverage. Of course, I'm hoping this conflict doesn't quite reach "war" proportions. Or has it already?

And judging from Hala's reports I'm inclined to think that she's the female CNN international version of Anderson Cooper: telling the personal tales of woe in war time.


But that wasn't exactly the point of why I started this entry. I actually wanted to wax hilarious that Tony Campion is on BBC World. Oh, Tony. I don't think he did too well as victim to Hala's early morning sarcasm. How did someone at the forums put it? Bitchy. Bitchy captures the Hala-Tony relationship very well.
When I saw Tony I was confused, because Campion looks old. Like he's aged a whole decade. Or are BBC anchors supposed to look aged?

Oh well.

Is Inside the Middle East going to be shown this weekend?