Abscence Of A Pearl Harbor Moment

[RawAlex]

Colin, sorry, but a picture of a million protestors followed by a full minute of GWB's comments is not balanced coverage... millions of people all over the world voiced a common opinion, it was staggeringly huge international event, it merits more than a quick clip and a couple of comments.

American news is biased because of it's sources - the whitehouse (and all other political bodies) manage the news cycle very carefully, making sure that the stories they want get covered and the less desirable stuff gets buried under a sea of pro-whatever is important right now stories. Most of your political debates are really nothing more than republican vs democratic horn blowing and finger pointing, and rarely has anything to do with the real world.

More importantly, US news has moved from fact to "s'posin' " - views, opinions, theories, concepts, etc. It is hard for most people to figure out the difference between fact and editorial comments these days.

The important part of this (heading back to the topic) is that even with all of this apparatus in place, all the press flaks, spin generators, story stuffers, talking heads, and meaningless scripted "interviews", GWB and his team really haven't been able to convince the american people of the need for instant action - yes, americans support going to war, at some time - but they also appear to support giving the inspection process and the UN their time, their due, and their position in the process.

Colin, do yourself a favor - watch some BBC news, some CBC news, and whatever other international news sources you can find - pick up english language editions of a foreign newspaper - find out what other people think, how the news is reported differently, and you will see a different world.

Living in Canada means I can watch news from at least four different countries (US, Canada, UK, and France) and the stories don't all play the same... it is interesting and it is an eye opener.

Alex