A recent visitor from the UK cited a BBC study that showed that the four main networks in the United States (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) covered only two or three non-American news stories each month. Even those had an American interest. The reader then posed the question as whether the study seemed correct. While I personally felt that that was certainly the case, I thought I’d do a bit of unofficial, unscientific surveying of my own, not just on the four networks. And I came to similar abysmal conclusions.
Now, perhaps my timing could be better, as international news is currently dominated and eclipsed by the War in Iraq — conflict, invasion, exercise, liberation, action, whatever you want to call it — and seconded by the recent manifestation of SARS, but there is very little to glean on other worldly events.
The major networks covered only Iraq and SARS. CNN’s coverage of the world in my Palm Pilot includes only the brief news of 950 civilians killed in a massacre by unknown perpetrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nothing more. The CNN International Edition included news of a Russian school fire that resulted in the deaths of 21 students and one teacher, as well as reporting financial difficulties of EasyJet, Europe’s biggest budget airline, and report of an Indian MiG-21 fighter plane crashing into a milk processing plant.
The BBC News, also on my Palm Pilot, did surprisingly worse, covering nothing but the War in Iraq. The London Times covered the same events as CNN and CNN International, but also included the jailing of two Cuban dissidents and the arrest of a spokesman for Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change. The Sydney Morning Herald also focused on the Iraqi War, mentioning in additional only that gorillas and chimpanzees in west Africa were dwindling due to outbreaks of the Ebola virus.
Perhaps print news had better world coverage. I checked the San Jose Mercury News for any signs of international news. A story on a missing dolphin was quite interesting, but even that was related to the Iraqi War as the Atlantic bluenose dolphin in question worked for the US Navy as a minesweeper. On I went. War. War. Turn the page. War. War. War. Turn the page. War. SARS. War. The last piece of international news was the unfortunate tale of three Kenyans who died trying to rescue a woman’s cell phone. Not rescue the woman, just her phone. The bodies turned up four hours later; the cell phone never did.
Apparently, the only international news that’s fit to print nowadays is calamity and tragedy, and the only viable alternative to traditional news outlets is Public Radio International on National Public Radio, the most-frequently tuned station in my car that often gives a more personal perspective to the world.
In general I think that you will find that non US news programmes are considerably more informative about the outside world. I have met a number of Americans who are amazed at the depth of our main daily news programmes, not just on the BBC but on our other channels as well. Of course there is some degree of manipulation but nothing compared to what American citizens are subject to. I found this story on the BBC website which just shows the depths to which media and government can stoop and connive in their manipulation of us — all about the woman soldier in Iraq who was “rescued” by special forces. Turns out it was, apart from the girl, a complete fake. Unless you take a serious look at how news differs (i.e. not just how it’s delivered to your PDA) it’s hard to make a judgement. I met a couple of Americans during the war who were agog at the lack of censorship of our news (we knew it was censored just not as heavily and not as clumsily).
It does make for an interesting contrast. According to the article mentioned in the previous comment: “There was no sign of shooting, no bullet inside her body, no stab wound – only road traffic accident. They want to distort the picture. I don’t know why they think there is some benefit in saying she has a bullet injury.” But according to an article linked to by that page: “Ambushed by Iraqi forces, she continued firing back after she had already been hit multiple times and had seen several other soldiers in her unit die around her, one official told the paper.” Remind me. What is the first casualty of war?
While I know it’s not the most accurate alternative (but the only convenient alternative at all!), I supplement my news gathering with the BBC news on NPR. The whole story of Jessica definitely smacked of a non-veiled attempt at American PR when it aired. In contrast, ABC news later broadcast a rebuttal, stating that the rescue was “not so dramatic as it sounded at first.” Propaganda is still used on both sides. The astute viewer would notice that the Iraqi doctors’ assertion that the Hollywood-style military action was “an overreaction” and that they had to sell “precious drugs to pay for the damage” to smashed doorknobs is logically or morally flawed. What hospital administration (even a war-torn one) would put repairing doorknobs ahead of patient care — especially when subsequent video footage shows that the broken doorknobs are still in place? Sounds like propaganda on the obverse side to me… – RDL
The first casualty of war? If you’re an ally of the US probably your own men.