Air Wars: Amanpour Strikes Back

By David Bjerklie, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, Michele Orecklin, David Spitz, Flora Tartakovsky and Chris Taylor

As wars go, the Balkans conflict makes for pretty grim TV--few pictures of bombings-in-progress, sparse information from NATO and no Scud Stud. With the burden of infotainment resting with the news correspondents, we review their performances.

CBS EVENING NEWS Rating [3 1/2 missiles] Kudos to Dan Rather for being the first network anchor in Belgrade. It may not be Baghdad live, but Gunga Dan is in his element. Kudos also to whoever chose the tag Crisis over Kosovo over the banal Crisis in Kosovo. VIEWERS: 8.5 million

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS Rating [2 missiles] Ron Allen looks as if he's dressed for a Ricky Martin video, not reporting a war. Maybe his snazzy disguise was the reason he was allowed to stay in Belgrade that day when other reporters were forced out. VIEWERS: 10 million

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT Rating [3 1/2 missiles] While Jane Clayson sports the J. Crew look in Macedonia, her colleague Morton Dean blends in with the natives by dressing urban casual. The people in Belgrade seem to like this old-school, man-on-the-street reporter; so we do too. VIEWERS: 9.5 million

CNN Rating [3 1/2 missiles] Christiane Amanpour, formerly the sultry voice of the Gulf War, shines despite CNN's rather dry coverage. You know you've arrived when the Serbian media accuse you of "great, great evil." VIEWERS: 575,000 (avg.)

MSNBC Rating [3 missiles] John Hockenberry is suitably disheveled doing his talk show live--at 4 a.m. local time--from Tirana, Albania. Maybe he gloats a tad too much over the mud stuck to his wheel-chair. You're tough. We know. VIEWERS: 262,000 (avg.)

FOX NEWS CHANNEL Rating [2 missiles] Since gutsy but shoestring Fox is relatively understaffed in the Balkans, its format centers on punditry. Amid all the bickering, Tim Marshall is sometimes just another voice in the wilderness. VIEWERS: 136,000 (avg.)