CNN isn’t a real news network, but on New Year’s Eve it can be pleasant to have it on while you’re doing other things – so that every hour, on the hour, you can look at the screen for a couple of minutes and see the arrival of the midnight hour celebrated with fireworks in one world capital after another.
To be sure, when the new year arrives in the Middle East, things on CNN start to get – well – a bit curious. This year, CNN’s coverage from the Gulf region was based in Abu Dhabi and hosted by CNN veteran Becky Anderson, who, during the several years she’s been living in that city, has been promoting it, and the United Arab Emirates generally, with a consistently fervid intensity. Her conduct on New Year’s Eve was no exception to the rule: even more than celebrating the New Year, Anderson’s assigned job for the evening seemed to be to celebrate the Gulf autocracies, especially the UAE.
