Yahoo Glorifies War Tourism

Yahoo's decision to send a war correspondent to cover every armed conflict in the world within a year is little more than a stunt. It's a slightly tasteless way to let people vicariously engage in war tourism.True, the award-winning correspondent, Kevin Sites, is well-respected, courageous, and has covered wars in many continents for many outlets including CNN, NBC, ABC and MSNBC. The problem isn't Sites, but his assignment. Covering every conflict in the world in a year means that he won't be able to cover any in-depth. We already get plenty of superficial war reporting --- what's needed is in-depth coverage. But given that his schedule requires him to cover every conflict worldwide in a year, the surface is all we'll see.Sites will let Internet viewers vicariously participate in war tourism -- see all the dead bodies and brutality, but from a safe distance back at home.If this is Tuesday, we must be in Sudan. Or is that Iraq? Maybe Afghanistan?