The News, and how Americans don’t get it
There is a lot of things that I like about America, and many things i am sure I will come to miss during my stay here. One thing I will not miss though is American Cable News.
As many of you know, the only decent way to get the news, especially world news, in the US is to listen to the BBC or go to their website. This is because all news organizations in the US have become sensationalized. For some reason Americans insist on hearing about the latest crap on Britney Spears or whoever rather than what is actually happening in the world so that is what CNN and MSNBC and FOX cover, maybe with a different slant but it is all the same crap. Then Americans act surprised when other countries think we are a bunch of stupid rednecks… Really? Is it THAT surprising? Remember four years ago when Jon Stewart went on Crossfire and totally owned them for what a crappy job they did? Sure they got canceled but nothing has really changed in coverage, and it doesn’t have to be that way. There is CNN over here too, but it is different. It is a world version of CNN so they actually report the news instead of the latest OJ Simpson trial.
In America everything has to be sensationalized, every issue must have a winner and loser RIGHT NOW. The other day, while at Beer Corner, talking with a bunch of Aussies about the pros and cons of America; George brought up something that happened in his class. A little girl, who was Catholic, was telling him how her church had a Santa Clause come in and give them KFC vouchers for a kids meal or something. George said it would make news in America because all the fundamentalists would freak out about a Santa in church. But I disagree, the reason it would make news is not because of fundamentalists; after all there are plenty of fundamentalists in other countries even Vietnam. No, the reason it would make news is because Americans like hear about stupid things that are not important.
Really, all this “culture war” crap doesn’t exist in other countries, or if it does it comes second because it is not important. The world is not going to end if gay people have a parade or if a city puts up a manger, so why the hell are we A. suing each other over these things and B. allowing these stories to dominate our news media? Seriously this is what Americans fight about, and it is these issues that get ratings, and that is why we look like stupid rednecks to the rest of the world.
As I was saying I am pretty disappointed that I get better news in a socialist republic, than in a country where the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights is the freedom of speech.
December 25, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Just found the blog – looks good and I hope things are going well in Vietnam.
A few thoughts:
1) I’ve always wondered if other countries have the same type of trash-dominated news media that we do. I suspect that at least in part they do. For example, the Economist is often referenced as an excellent sources of news, but England has trashy tabloids like the The Mirror too. You may be right though, that the media in other developed countries strikes a better balance between celebrity trash and substantive news.
2) On a similar note, I much prefer the current consumer-driven news we have to Pravda and other products of totalitarianism/central planning. This certainly doesn’t mean that our news services are anywhere close to ideal however.
3) I agree that the “culture war” will always be less important than things like foreign and economic policy. However, the culture war is important in that fundamentally, it is a struggle over what sort of nation the U.S. really is (a tolerant, open one; a xenophobic, traditional culture-obsessed one; or something else).