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News :: Miscellaneous |
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FORGETTING FOREIGN AFFAIRS |
Current rating: 0 |
by Nina Burleigh
(No verified email address) |
18 Sep 2001
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Regular CNN viewers might think that a small group of foreign correspondents normally stationed overseas who were reporting from the States last week were called back home because of the disaster. The truth is more ironic and is one piece of a bigger, troubling trend in US media's foreign coverage. |
At least four CNN overseas reporters just happened to be in the U.S. on September 11 because they had been called home to be told that they were either about to lose their jobs, or were going to have to start working from their homes to save the company money.
Foreign news cutbacks are not a recent phenomenon. National newspapers and magazines have shut scores of overseas bureaus in recent years. The cutbacks not only save money for the beancounters but reflect an editorial decision-making process that judges Americans' need to know based on focus groups. This tool of advertisers and political consultants has declared that "serving the public" means more stories about cars, celebrities and cures that don't involve pain. Forget foreign affairs.
The foreign news blackout means that the rest of the world knows far more about America than we know about ourselves, let alone what we know about them. And this triumph of ignorance means that Americans can't even comprehend what motivates those who hate us.
For the rest of this story, continue at the link below to TomPaine.com: |
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http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/09/17/1.html
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