I'm doing a product review of an HDTV compatible device. So I plug the unit into my HDTV converter and pull some channels off the air to see what its picture looks like.

San Jose's channel #4 is running some sort of 16X9 widescreen high-def demonstration loop, the sort of stuff that looks great in store displays--everything's super sharp, perfectly photographed and lit, mostly outdoors, and just stunning.

So far, running in the background, I've seen a woman's BMX race from 2001, some sort of auction of French antiques, and now footage from a US aircraft carrier during the early stages of our war in Afghanistan.

Guess who's broadcasting from the flight deck? Peter Arnett!

Arnett was fired last year by MSNBC "after the journalist told state-run Iraqi TV that the U.S.-led coalition’s initial war plan had failed and that reports from Baghdad about civilian casualties had helped antiwar protesters undermine the Bush administration’s strategy", according to MSNBC itself. (And he's been fired from numerous other gigs as well.)

But I guess he's still your go-to guy when you need narration for a canned HDTV news feed.

Because nothing says high-tech like Vietnam-era leftists with six-strand combovers.