CNN's Palin coverage

I normally like CNN's coverage since they usually get good access to stories and typically cover them in a balanced, if not completely bias-free way. But I can't say the video of Sarah Palin's speech last night at the Republican National Convention was what I'm used to from CNN.

From about :15-21, the cameraman walking around the convention floor made for a shaky picture that was more Blair Witch Project than top-quality news video. Also, the shot at :50 of an onlooker taking a picture was kind of overdone.

In all, having so many different camera angles (looking over Palin's shoulder, from fifteen points around the stadium, reaction shots of about every state she mentioned in her speech, etc.) made the video feel more forced than it needed to. I understand CNN probably wanted to give the viewer a feeling of being there but it ended up coming across as an arrogant display of "hey, we're actually here and we have the budget to have ninety-eight camera angles." Maybe not, but close.

The camerawork did get a little simpler toward the end of her speech, but the early shots were enough to leave me scratching my head.

Here's a clip, check the link in the first paragraph for the whole video.