Green means ... a bad night on TV

By ELEANOR BLACK

A grainy green image of goodness-knows-what provided the best picture of what was happening in Afghanistan this week.

As America continued its military strike, nightscope film of what was reported to be bombs falling on an undisclosed location - but which looked more like an emerald snowstorm - popped up on television screens at frequent intervals.

So did a series of experts who did their best to interpret the fuzzy pictures.

For CNN, the news network that made its name with saturation coverage of the Gulf War, it was a bit of a comedown. It borrowed the film from Arab television station Al Jazeera, having not yet managed to get close enough to the action to shoot its own.

In 1990, CNN reporter Peter Arnett delivered daily updates from Baghdad. He was there when the allied forces started bombing the city and his network was able to provide almost continuous live cover.

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon nearly a month ago, the network has had to rely on pictures taken from distant aircraft carriers of strikes being launched.

Even the "exclusive" showing of a military tape showing what looked to be missiles being launched from a submarine was overshadowed when Al Jazeera screened bin Laden proclaiming that Americans would never feel safe again.

David Shellock, a broadcasting lecturer at the University of Canterbury, said the new war was unlikely to play out on television screens as neatly as the Gulf conflict had.

"For all the technology available now, it may turn out to be a very different type of coverage. The footage we see will be very much managed by the Pentagon. A lot of the coverage will be people analysing endlessly and fruitlessly."

Map: Opposing forces in the war against terror

Afghanistan facts and links