I was in the states this time last year. I must agree that their foreign news coverage is pretty poor. I watched CNN basically every night and they only had a few snippets of news about Europe and all the hype surrounding the Euro. Probably because back then US was too concerned about the war in Afghanistan.
However, other news network like the ABC had more content on foreign affairs. They even had a report on the Sydney bushfires and our own NSW Premier Bob Carr was commenting on how pathetic these young firebugs were, having nothing to do but to cause absolute havoc.

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Originally posted by JohnSmith it's akin to the iron curtain, the purpose is isolation. but rather than forbid the outside news, they just omit it, and hope they can make life hard enough for you that you will never bother to go look things up. it's terrible.

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Originally posted by Terpsichore Have to agree with you. I lived in the US for one year and the Internet is the only way to find some news about other countries. They just don't care. It is also that Americans are very bad at geography so they can't locate most countries on the globe (< no joke).

you've missed the point he made, and while i agree with what you went onto say, i totally disagree with john 'ive read too much of orwells 1984' smith.

the real truth, john, is not a conspiracy theory of totalitarianism, rather the viewers (not the news networks, not the government, not the cia, not the presidents secret hit squad) don't give a rats ass about the rest of the world. all they care about (not just americans, but everyone in the world) are themselves. they only care for what affects them directly and indirectly on the local/national scale. people are just too selfish to care about someone elses troubles half away around the world, and only want to hear their seemingly important news, or should we say infotainment? but that's another issue, for another day.

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Originally posted by DrUg_Tit0 Well Europe is separated by that ocean as well from the america, but still we get most of the important news from there. And yes, I agree with you all, American foreing news aren't good at all. I lived there for two years, and it is amazing to see what they think of the rest of the world. When I was there in 1995-1997, they still had maps of Soviet Union!, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia on their european maps. And not just like old maps, but new maps which they were printing out to kids and nobody told them that was wrong. Also, lot of kids there (7th and 8th grade at the time I was there) asked me if Croatia was in Africa! or if we have elephants roaming around!!! They were also very surprised at my ability to use telephone. Some even didn't know where Europe is or even what it was. There's been a test about geographical litteracy on the www.nationalgeographic.com and of course, american kids did worst. America is too closed in on itself, and even when people try to be open about the rest of the world, they assume everyone is coming from tribe-like communities that exist only in some parts of Africa nowadays, which makes them look arrogant and stupid. Probably because all they see about other countries is documentaries, which usually don't concentrate on new urban areas, but mostly on traditional ways of living and history.

Hmm, this reminds me of an article I read in anthropology this year. It was criticizing the national geographic for being very biased towards western "white" culture. Perhaps the national geographic isn't the only publication that is guilty of this, but this article used specific examples from NG.

Basically, if you look in the issues of national geographic, you see that when they have pictures of old places in Europe, such as Greece and Rome, you usually find regular everyday (white) people, dressed in modern day clothes... but if it's a picture from Africa, Asia or South America, they find primitive aboriginal tribal people to pose in the picture instead of the regular everyday people of that country, as if to say "look how much our western countries have advanced, and see how primitive everyone else is"

They also speak in a condensending tone about these people, eg "We had to make sure the aboriginals didn't break the artifacts lying around" as if they were dumb kids.

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• Today: Your child and hearing loss • Dateline: What are you really paying in the rush at the register? • Today: Dealing with in-laws for the holidays • Today: Fixing up furniture for the holidays • Today: Keeping your credit score straight • Dateline: Scorsese’s history of New York • Dateline: Kids have easy access to violent video games • Nightly News: LAPD considers fewer car chases • Today: Treating teen depression • Today: Reducing the risks of food illness • Today: Staying healthy while you travel • Dateline: Friend of alleged sniper says wife was real target • Today: Converting your home into cash • Today Book Club for December: ‘Paradise Alley’

Hehe, reminds me of that "culture of fear" point brought up in "bowling for columbine". If you haven't seen the movie, go to the website and watch the marylin manson interview, he sums it up pretty well.

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jimtran.net

Programmes that kick ass:
CNN
-Q&A
-Insight

BBC World
HardTalk

As for Belgium, I would rate our news 8/10
For the Belgians & Dutch: TerZake & Netwerk.

in the 16 years i lived here, in canada, news coverage of the world is good to very good. some local chanels reserve something like 2 minutes to world affairs but i tend to not watch those crapy chanels anyways. the thing i noticed that slowly the amount of time reserved to world affairs has shrinked at prime time news (at about 6pm).

in Syria, its quite the contrary, its all about the world and very little about the country itself, except maybe who the president recieved or such bs

i used to get directv and have access to about a 150 local and news channel from the US and i was always dismayed at the little news coverage reserved to the "outside world"

and contrary to what other believes, i think its made on purpose to reserve more time for local "dog got killed in car accident news" than "war in africa and such", its not a conspiracy per say, its just very hard for me to explain. watch "bowling for columbine" to get a hint

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The BBC comes on in Connecticut on like PBS or some shit from 11:00pm -12:00am, I enjoy watching that because it isnt just Briatin or the U.S its EVERYWHERE in the world. And bbc.co.uk is also nice.

How fucked up is it that I have to go on ANOTHER country's website to get news about my country?

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Originally posted by PeacefulWarrior How fucked up is it that I have to go on ANOTHER country's website to get news about my country?

Thats the PRice Americans have blindfully paid as propaganda is the focus of presentation in US media.

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"This place isn't big enough for me to blow it up."
-MARCO V

all true. I live in the US and its funny how a story comes out on american news and when you hear about it from foriegn news its a complete different story. Like about how S. Korean Demonstraters are angered about the US killing two young children so they are attacking american soldiers in their embassy's. They made them look really bad but when i heard the whole story they had many other reasons why they are mad which the US dont want their citizens to know about.

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"Saying you understand trance by listening to commercial crap is like saying you understand hip hop by listening to 'Who let the dogs out'" - unknown

SO GO READ YOUR LOCAL NEWS!!! I don't understand why people complain so much about cnn and american news in general. YES it does have an American focus because it is an AMERICAN news channel. Who's going to most likely watch it??? AMERICANS! So of course these news channels are going to have a geographical bias. Although we don't have a lot of news from Europe we have a lot from South America because of geography. Are you saying that your local news channels are unbiased in covering stories from across the entire WORLD??? A) Are you watching the right news shows??? American news has a local news show FOLLOWED by a worldwide news show. B) Time how much news coverage your show has within a 5000 mile radius and time how much time is spent outside of that radius. News in general is going to be geographically biased to appeal to the population. They need to make money same as any other tv network.

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Originally posted by Trance Plant TOP TV NEWS STORIES • Today: Your child and hearing loss • Dateline: What are you really paying in the rush at the register? • Today: Dealing with in-laws for the holidays • Today: Fixing up furniture for the holidays • Today: Keeping your credit score straight • Dateline: Scorsese’s history of New York • Dateline: Kids have easy access to violent video games • Nightly News: LAPD considers fewer car chases • Today: Treating teen depression • Today: Reducing the risks of food illness • Today: Staying healthy while you travel • Dateline: Friend of alleged sniper says wife was real target • Today: Converting your home into cash • Today Book Club for December: ‘Paradise Alley’ LOL

the Today show is a laid back morning show..not a world news show...and Dateline is a non-political magazine show...neither one is gearded towards reporting world affairs....like the show u presented for Canada

so make sure u know what your posting

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Bring back 1994 NYC clubbing nights, cus the sh*t today is filled with junk parties and DJs that play sh*t House.....Zabiela, Sander, or Howells and all the rest suck and couldnt throw a night like it was in the early 90s in NYC!!!...Screw Twilo - give me Limelight circa 1993!!!