The following from Best of the Web: (April 29---if you don't get this emailed to you yet, succomb!)


The Christian Science Monitor, meanwhile, reports from the northern city of Kirkuk, where Iraqis are thrilled to have access to Western news media:

Two ethnic Turkmens--whose language is an offshoot of Turkish--are checking out new satellite dishes on the steps of Salih's store. They say they've already bought one and are enjoying watching television stations from Turkey. "If we turned on the television in the past, the only news was what Saddam did today," says Sabah Nur eh-Din. "We had only two channels. It would have been better to turn the television off and just paste up a picture of Saddam on the screen."

His friend, Abbas Ali, concurs. "We used to go to sleep at 10 p.m. Now we stay up until 4 or 5 a.m. because we can't get enough." Still desperate for war news, they tune to CNN, BBC, and what appears to be a local favorite, Fox. They like it, people here say, because it has been the most supportive of the war.

There's something to be said, it would seem, for being fair and balanced.

Comical Ali's Second Act
There may be a TV gig in Mohammed Saeed "Comical Ali" al-Sahaf's future. Reuters reports the head of a Dubai-based satellite station says Sahaf, Iraq's hugely entertaining former "information minister," is "welcome to join the network immediately as a commentator and analyst." Reuters also picks up a report on Sahaf's whereabouts:

A London-based Arabic newspaper reported . . . [he] was now holed up with his aunt in Baghdad and wanted the Americans to arrest and protect him.

The report said Sahaf had left the northern city of Mosul four days ago and was staying at his aunt's house in the capital's Palestine Street.

It quoted a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) who said that U.S. troops had refused to take Sahaf into custody because he did not figure on the American most-wanted list, but that negotiations were continuing.

It's somehow fitting that this would-be TV star can't even get himself arrested. (end best of Web)

I STILL want to see Baghdad Bob on Point/Counterpoint---preferably with John "Looks French, Served in Viet Nam" Kerry. Or as the owner of "Baghdad Bob's Kebabs---They're Great! Your stomach will be their tomb...."