Next News From Haiti: Pulling Out

The devastation in Haiti has, in the words of the Pew Research Center, dominated the "public's consciousness" in a way that few international disasters ever have.

Dozens of television channels showed a celebrity telethon on Friday, raising at least $57 million.

The attention has come in large part because of the news media's reportorial muscle, the kind that is harder to flex in a challenging economic climate. In an event of this magnitude, "you cover it first and worry about the money second," said Paul Friedman, an executive vice president for CBS News. Executives acknowledge that the worries arise now. They say, however, that the same technology that let reporters and camera crews arrive ahead of aid shipments will let them withdraw staff from the country but return with relative ease when events call for it.