The contrast between CNN and CNN International during last night's Virginia Tech coverage was marked... Wolf Blitzer in his Situation Room was shouting questions and observations at reporters, witnesses and the viewer... the two presenters who first fronted the breaking news were following the usual set of inane questions that every TV reporter is seemingly obliged to ask victims and witnesses to tragedies (One poor student was asked at least six times how it "made her feel")... and the gathered pack of journo's at the press conference were determined to have the case solved by dinnertime... it is interesting how much alike coverage of most breaking news stories is - I am sure there must be a checklist of questions, statements and story angles somewhere. "Trail of destruction" anyone?

CNN International on the other hand (when we switched back to that from the US feed), had a much calmer response. You would be hard pressed to believe they are the same source network.

The Herald's Your Views section astonished me when I read it yesterday. Living and working in Geneva, I could not imagine the same mix of comments coming from a European audience. The debate is so hot here (excuse the pun), and particularly in the UK, that the problem is taken as almost given - save a few exceptions such as the Channel 4 'documentary'. That said, as I am involved on the periphery of the climate change issue with my job, it was interesting to see how the debate is being shaped on the other side of the world. Although we are an international organisation, I can't help but think that our perceptions of public sentiment are tainted slightly by where we live.

Would the Herald's respondants be typical of New Zealander's current thinking, or is this just the people with too much time of their hands?