In the middle of the chaos in Ferguson

(CNN) – There is an enormous media presence in Ferguson, a city of 21,000 people.

Critics have charged that the media are putting themselves in the center of the story.

But police haven't exactly helped that by arresting several journalists.

CNN was right in the thick of it overnight when the tear gas started flying. And we, along with people in living rooms across the nation, watched images which seem so incompatible with life in the modern United States of America unfold in real time.

CNN's Jake Tapper reports.