From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

If you watched cable news on Thursday, you saw more than stories about terrorist bombs in Turkey and Iraq.

President Bush in England, protests in Miami,

and Wacko Jacko on the Lamb, you saw the battle for the soul of TV journalism.

Coming up, twin attacks on British targets in Turkey, coming during President Bush's state visit to London.

The death toll is rising.

Today, here in London, we'll see how that big demonstration looks when it winds up here on Trafalgar Square.

And the Fox News Alert protesters are clashing with police in Miami just outside international trade talks.

The King of Pop is expected to surrender here in Santa Barbara.

The battle raged all day as square-jawed anchors moved briskly between stories, approaching

each with an equal amount of gravity and urgency.

There was deja vu in Trafalgar Square.

They're bringing down an effigy, a statue of George W. Bush.

And scenes of devastation in Istanbul.

The synagogues were bombed on Saturday.

They had a couple of...

But mostly, we saw the media straining at the reins

in pursuit of the prize pheasant,

the 40-pound mackerel,

the once and forever biggest cahuna.

...