The television-watching public audience in the west was shown non-stop video footage of firework-like bombings, and point-of-view shots of missiles heading to their targets.
Fergal's reporting helped his television audiences make sense of the horrors of war, but underneath there were more personal reasons attracting him to the frontline.
And because they are essentially making their pitches to a vast television audience, the debates also underline how that the choice falls to ordinary Americans.
She not only gives away her own money, she encourages television viewers to donate their money to what she thinks are important projects and organizations.
Since that show, seen by 100,000 revellers and 2m television viewers, her album Blue Smoke has hovered near the top of the album chart for eight weeks.