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Television has long been a small window on a distant world, providing after-the-fact glimpses of the horrors of the day mediated by the soothing voices of broadcasters who provide the context for catastrophe. But this comfortable insulation has steadily eroded under the lidless eye of 24/7 news. From the Challenger disaster to "shock and awe" in Baghdad to the suffering of Katrina victims, the right-now reality of events pierce through the glassy screen and the glassy eye. Along with millions of viewers, I watched the desperate landing of the crippled JetBlue flight at LAX last night. I happened to see it the old-fashioned way, on the news at 11, pre-packaged into a story. Gripping enough--the nose wheels burning away in a gout of flame that licked the underbelly of the plane all the endless length of the runway--but then I talked with a co-worker who watched the landing live on CNN. "I almost s__t my pants," was her candid review. The part of the story that keeps going round and round in my mind, however, is that the terrified passengers were also able to watch their landing live on TV, and wait to see if a fireball would melt the little screen above the seat ahead.