Greenland : Planet in Peril, can Anderson Cooper 360 do it better?

I'm glad that Anderson Cooper and the CNN 360 team are spending more time in Greenland, the pressure of “live reporting” have proven to work against their quality - remember the Amazon? - And the Arctic circle is not the best place to just transmit; the possibilities of technical problems are very high. Just focus in the quality and then uplink the packages. God knows they can make a special and repeat it, repeat it, and repeat it for any second hour of the newscast they wish. But I rather watch a special than just an as live stand in or a VO.

Two years ago, a great friend of mine, John McConnico did an extraordinary work about global warming and its effects on Greenland. He raised the bar, and unfortunately I doubt CNN will be at his level. Here are some images of his photo essay for the New York Times and Discovery:

Arctic Thaw

by John McConnico

John is a very, very special fellow. Someone I personally admire and respect and probably the only Texan I ever had a crush on …. We met a little more than a decade ago, when the Associated Press assigned him to be the region’s Chief Photo Editor. We knew nothing about the “teddy bear gringo”, he was very young and well mannered and humble, a rarity among Staff photojournalists of the local mayor outlets. But he meant business. And a sleepy market had to face and step in the challenge this youngster brought with him.

Unlike the natural media tendencies, John made his AP post a greenhouse for young talent. He gave great international opportunities to unlikely characters that seized the situation with brilliance. Ricardo Figueroa, José Jiménez (check his award winning photos from 9/11 and Iraq at Getty’s) and Laura Magruder, where some of the few young talents that started presenting their works at the most prestigious international papers.

People have no idea how difficult it is to present hard news with an aesthetical touch and sensibility. John is simply a genius doing it. He almost lost his life during the coverage of Hortense taking this photo:

Which earned him a 1997 World Press Photo Award. Then he was transferred to direct the Associated Press Asia & East Africa Bureau for whom he covered the USA Embassy attacks in Nairobi for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999, probably the youngest photographer ever.

I will always have a debt of gratitude with “el gringo”. He was there for me at one of the worst things I have covered and witnessed in my life. A moment that defined my career and made me respect, or simply trust in their divine madness, international correspondents and understand that not everyone is capable of doing it, and recognize that it is ok. Gracias Gringo!

Someone once said about John: "It takes a special kind of person to live that kind of life. It is like a photo junkie - they like to live in the thick of things. Their everyday life is lived under condtions that are far from comfortable."

And as we all know...