Quote:
Originally posted by RawAlex@Feb 17 2003, 11:51 AM
Those viewers tend to get a one sided, pro-american, pro-whitehouse point of view of world events.
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You underrate Americans, Alex. Over and over again I read non-Americans claiming their press
coverage is so much better and balanced than that here in the US. The average American does
see both sides of stories. Debate styled news programming is very popular on the American
news networks. Think about that. "Debate". That's right. People are hearing both sides of an
argument. Who. What. When. Where. Why. That's the news. What other side IS there? After that, the rest of the story is all about what background is provided, what stories are linked and
the sneaky (aka very bright) writers getting their word in. English riters everywhere present news in pretty much the same format and with their own biases. Well, that is ALL the news. I
have found the BBC's coverage of the events to be very similar to CNN's. Maybe you are like my friend at GFY that is blinded by his passions. Read on!
I turned CNN on yesterday at 4pm because I read a post on GFY that CNN was horribly biased and was claiming that there were only hundreds of protestors out when there were
actually millions. I turned it on right at the top of the 4pm ET hour to get a fair sample. Instead of what the GFYer saw, I saw extensive coverage of the world-wide protests and about 60 seconds of coverage of George Bush's response. Terms such as "massive demonstrations" and "millions of marchers" were used and millions of marchers were shown. There was no balance. No pro-whitehouse viewpoints. There was coverage of the biggest news story of the day, as it should be.
Yeah, sure, a heavy dose of pro-whitehouse viewpoints. The US News media shreds the whiteouse to bits when given half a chance. Please, like the news media let up on the Monica Lewinski bit or the Iran Contra Affair or any other number of White House mishaps. Nope. They go to town for a news story that slams the administration. Trust me, with the nearly even number of Democrats and Republicans in this country, half the people would be happy as hell to see an anti-whitehouse news story during any administration. A sad thing but maybe that is the fuel of the American Democratic Republic.
Opinion in America is split nearly right in half because opinions are largely split on political lines. Current polls show Americans DO understand the way the US is viewed right now.
If you want to buy into the "Brainwashed Americans" myth, just go ahead. You underrate Americans.