News Blues? Are We Giving You What You Want?
The above headline was prompted by a growing debate about the lack of on-sight overseas news coverage, a dilemma that places Americans in an unusual position. In an era filled with uncertainty over how events in other countries will impact on our lives. more and more news organizations are cutting back on foreign coverage.
In a roundtable debate on the subject on CN 8′s VOICE OF REASON, taped for tonight at 9:30 P.M., the verdict was unanimous: Americans are not getting the information they need to make proper judgments.
Chris Harper, former network and news magazine bureau chief in the Middle East blames declining overseas coverage for the fact that most Americans have limited knowledge of the forces in Iraq that are fighting each other. He calls it a real crisis of information. That view is shared by Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, who has strong words about the lack of foreign news events that are often overshadowed by fluff and puff on local news.
Bob Zelnick, former ABC correspondent told me that he finds it ironic that most young Americans are getting their news from Comedy Central when they should be reading more. And Michael Days, Editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, was candid enough to admit that readers are not coming to his paper for overseas coverage and that there are plenty of outlets for it.
Perhaps the voice of the future on this show is Amy Webb, editor in chief at Dragonfire, a most unusual and in depth news and information website. Amy thinks that the web with its platform and space will eventually be the premiere news site of the future.
I checked Dragonfire out. If you want depth and a special level of reporting expertise, I highly recommend it.
My view on the overseas coverage debate? If you look had enough you’ll find the information you need, but most Americans don’t have the time. Aside from the cable news networks, the major news organizations of this country are doing little to explain the real nature of our foreign challenges in a time when we need it most — when challenges overseas threaten us at home.
Beyond superficial headline summaries, American newspapers and TV outlets must do more to make things clear.
Amy may be right. In a vacuum of in-depth coverage, the internet may be the place to go for news that counts.
Comments(2)
You are right, Mr, Kane. There IS information out there if one is willing to go to the ‘trouble’ to find it. Americans, in general, really do not have much time for things that they do not understand. They live in a very comfortable world, and that which goes on outside the borders of this country (and in many cases outside of their STATE) is of little or no interest.
I grew up in suburban Philadelohia, and left when I was 17 to join the U.S.Army. I knew nothing of the world then, and it was quite a shock for me. After I was in the Active Force for nearly 15 years, I went back to Havertown for a 20-year reunion of my 8th-grade graduating class from Annunciation BVM. I had not been back since I left 20 years earlier, and was astounded to find how little that people could relate to the things that I had done and seen in my time in the Military. I had served two tours in Europe and was actively involved in Arms Control issues. When asked what I had been doing the past 20 years, I would begin to recount some of what I had experienced, and many of those who never really left Havertown would get the ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look, then switch the discussion to the hot-button topic of the town (the latest winners in the Dart Tournament at the local tappie).
Americans find it very difficult to get out of their comfort zones, and as I have alluded, they are not comfortable discussing that which does not directly affect them.
I am a blessed man for having lived in different cultures and studied different languages. It doesn’t make me any better than Everyman, it just heightens my awareness of the world around me.
As fort he news, there is a stark contrast to the way that ‘news’ is presented to the American public versus the way that news is presented to our counterparts around the world. The no-holds-barred presentation of the stories of the day outside of this country is very enlightening. People outside of the U.S. get a more complete reporting of world events. It does not necessarily make it better, but there are many sources to choose from internationally. Today, with internet access to news outlets around the world, people can (if they choose to take the time and do the research) get a more complete world view.
Our national media seem to want to insulate the American People from the ‘hard news’ of the world, and I believe that this has helped to make us ‘softer’.
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