So at one point today, during CBS's live coverage of Gulf War II: Shock & Awe, the network was broadcasting video of the Baghdad skyline provided by al-Jazeera while it carried the audio from a Sky News reporter stationed in the Iraqi capital. In other words, what was once the greatest news-gathering operation on network television -- the descendant of Murrow, Cronkite, and Severeid -- was now picking up audio and video from networks based in the Middle East and United Kingdom, respectively. Meanwhile, the programming CBS was supposed to be broadcasting at the time -- the NCAA basketball tournament -- had moved over to ESPN.
Which raises the question: why does CBS even exist anymore? Other than to serve as a repository for Survivor and the growing number of CSI knock-offs?
