Our Aussies in Lebanon.

We Aussies are a parochial bunch, we really are. The Middle East is on the verge of an all out war - a conflict that threatens to turn the Lebanese/Israeli border into the new frontline in the War on Terror - and all our media can report is the number of Australians stuck inside Lebanon, and the death-defying mission that's being planned to get them out. As is usually the way, the Fairfax broadsheets - The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald - and The Australian have taken a more widescreen world view of the conflict, offering up large front-page pictures of the carnage and regular reports from local Fairfax and News correspondents, at least in the early days of the conflict. But the tabloids and commercial television news maintains that our citizens are the most important part of story. There's a fine line that all of us in the media must tread when reporting international conflicts, and most of the time press coverage from the Australian media risk cutting us off from the rest of the world even more. Of course the our national media needs to tell us what's happening to those Australian nationals who are stranded and need a way out, but it's overkill, and such blind parochialism risks turning ours into a country so ignorant of the outside world that we could be easily confused with Americans. The United States might be the butt of the international community's jokes for its virtual isolation and international ignorance, but Australia isn't far behind them. One of the unexpected opportunities to come out of the post-September 11 conflict between the Muslim world and the West was, in part, a chance for remote countries like Australia, who before S11 had little or no direct experience with radical Islam and its politics, to engage and learn a little more about places like the Middle East. A few short news clips and sound bites of terrified Australians trying to escape Lebanon doesn't go any where near explaining the deep wounds that have just started to re-open in the Middle East.

Oh, and this just in: "Seven's Chris Reason is there with our stranded Aussies in Beirut" and "we (Channel Seven) told you about the plan to get them out". So says the voice-over for Channel Seven's Nightly News Promo. Good to know Channel Seven has us covered over in Beirut.