Kristallnacht Amanpour, CNN, Reporting from North Korea

CNN began flogging its weekend specials on North Korea this morning.

As someone born on Kristallnacht, and a former reporter, I was surprised to see Christiane Amanpour obediently pull a blue armband up her left arm at the instructions of her North Korean minders. The armband apparently had writing on it which identified her as a reporter. Was the design German?

Amanpour should have refused to doff the band and hightailed it back to the U.S. But what about all the time and dollars that had been invested up to then? We know.

Doesn't CNN hold a special place in Journalism by cooperating with Saddam Hussein in the run up to the war just to keep its Baghdad bureau? Now they can add the Amanpour Armband to their ethical successes.

Let's see what IRE, Sigma Delta Chi, The Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter, etc. have to say.