The alliance, according to Paul Friedman, executive VP of CBS News, gives the broadcaster access to a "global network of talented and experienced freelancers."
How sad.
This blogger is a huge fan of GP. It delivers a broad swath of news from the four corners of the world, information sadly missing from the U.S. mainstream press. For instance, a GP fan today would learn of a threat that Libya’s Col. Gaddafi was going to pitch his tent in Newfoundland, beers of Kilimanjaro, Australia's economic miracle, an Internet crackdown on political ads in Brazil, and India’s failed nuke test. That’s all good stuff. CBS will benefit from the partnership.The GP alliance shows how low the once mighty "Tiffany Network" has fallen.
GP is a bare-bones operation that relies on a worldwide network of talented stringers to gather its information. CBS once had its own network of foreign talent that was the envy of the U.S. news media. The CBS Radio Network was the gold standard when it came to foreign reporting.
Edward R. Murrow and the "Murrow Boys" (pictured) ruled the air leading up to, and after WWII. Murrow's gang included legends such as Bill Shirer, who covered the rise of Nazi Germany and authored the classic, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," Eric Sevareid, who covered the Blitz and the fighting in Europe, Charles Collingwood, who reported from North Africa and France, and Howard K. Smith, who covered Germany and France.
When Murrow moved to NYC following the war, he mentored a new crop of foreign correspondents that included Walter Cronkite, who reported from North Africa and Europe for UPI, Daniel Schorr, who reported from the Soviet Union and Germany and remains active as a weekend NPR commentator, Marvin Kalb, who reported from Moscow, and George Polk, who was killed in action in Greece in 1948.
With that rich heritage, one is more than a little bummed that CBS is forced to go begging to GlobalPost for help in making sense of a dangerous and ever-more connected world.
CBS used to own that beat.
(Photo via Tufts)
