The War Briefing
  • Home
  • Watch the Full Program Online
  • Interviews
  • Site Map
  • Discussion

Press Reaction

Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times

... Rigorously reported and somberly produced, "The War Briefing" is both a diagrammatic explanation of everything that has gone wrong [in Afghanistan] over the past few years and a grim visual tour of a landscape that nature itself seems to have made impervious to the ambitions of outside occupiers. Factually the film reprises recent news reports ... but at the same time it palpably delivers a sense of our narrowing options. ...

David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun

Has anyone done better long-form TV journalism during this election cycle than PBS' Frontline? ... "The War Briefing" looks at the complicated and troubled military legacy left behind by Bush and Cheney that the new president will have to deal with as soon as he takes office.

Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

... "Briefing" brings together journalists, diplomats and others, along with film from a cameraman embedded with U.S. Army troops in the Korengal River Valley, a major Taliban smuggling route. The result is persuasive and scary. ...

Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service

... Frontline is consistently one of the most watchable and informative newsmagazines, thanks to its literal documentary style and its reluctance to stage phoney dramatized re-creations. ... The result is a tough, hard-hitting, frequently compelling program that's well worth an hour of your time.

Kevin McDonough, United Features Syndicate

... a sobering look at the foreign policy challenges for the next president ...

Blackfive

... Frontline also does a decent job of outlining challenges with Afghanistan and other areas of the region, like Pakistan. Frontline also has some good footage of Bravo 1-26 slugging it out with the Taliban. You'll get a healthy appreciation for what the Blue Spaders are going through. ...

Jules Crittenden, PajamasMedia.com

The usually thorough, probing Frontline is being broadcast tonight, with a promise to examine some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges facing the next president.

Unfortunately, "The War Briefing," ... addresses only one of them, and not particularly well. ...

Frontline, though it presumes to give the next president a war briefing, curiously does not consider our ongoing interests and obligations in Iraq worthy of further discussion. ...

Thomas Watson, onTVonlineReviews.com

... a riveting segment ...

posted october 28, 2008

war briefing home page · watch online · dvd/transcript · credits · site map
FRONTLINE series home · privacy policy · journalistic guidelines

FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of wgbh educational foundation.
main photograph © corbis, all rights reserved
web site copyright WGBH educational foundation