This is one of the things which make the web worth while for me: in addition to the local news, I can read about what it is like to live in Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak.
Instead of watching CNN, I get a chance to see what an independent journalist who made it back to Iraq has to say, and even have a peek of what it is like to live in Bagdhad or set a foot on a landmine.
Oh yes, we don’t know how reliable these sources are. But we know how (un)reliable the newspapers and the TV are, don’t we?