Tuesday, January 12, 2010

 WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO WORLD NEWS?
One of the things I look forward to when I travel, is obtaining a more global view on news. Many establishments have access to a number world  news channels I don't normally see or hear.  There is a certain ease in becoming myopic, focussing on ones own British navel, when home.  This time, I was really disappointed with the subscriptions that were available. 

Fox News.  Listening to one political analysis which was undisguised extreme right wing bilge, it struck me that the 'senior reporter' would not have passed a tertiary college exam with it.  Then I hear that Mrs Palin, ex- vice presidential candidate in the last U.S. elections,  is being employed by Fox............right, that puts the thinking and knowledge levels in perspective.


CBBC International - fine if you want repeats of the Teletubbies.

NBC news or discussion programmes not available - no longer being subscribed to, however, there was;
BNBC - a business arm which did give some global enlightenment.  It was presented quite well but when it came to specific smaller business successes for 2009,  I began to wonder who had what financial payback from whom.


BBC International News.  There was more of an international flavour to the the headlines and discussion, such as it was.  I soon longed for the World Service where, it was, and still is possible to read through the lines.


Sky News.  Okay for keeping up- to- date with UK news. A reporter at the Blair Atholl garage, not that far from Perth in Scotland, spoke of the A9 trunk road being difficult to negotiate.  It would be, as would the B roads and the usual little side roads that remained little attended to.  A woman was interviewed who said she could not get out and no-one could get to her, yet, the intrepid TV crew managed to 'get to her' and interview her outside.  Of course, the general point was not lost, that is there were people who were virtually housebound by the Arctic conditions. 

Then, to cap it all we were asked to watch how slowly the dial on the fuel pumps functioned at the garage, because of the low temperatures.  Did they perform for the camera, did they hell.........the dials revolved  sweetly and at a speed you would usually expect them to work at.  And still the camera focussed on the dials!


The Sky TV sports analysis..." There are two teams, it is certain that there will be a winner today, without a doubt by the end of the day, there will be a winner".





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i usually stick to BBC News24 because most other news channels seem to irritate me after only a few minutes' viewing...especially those from "across the pond"

ZACL said...

Hi Ax,

The across the pond 'news' is pathetic on the whole. The Public broadcasting, mostly from the universities, is worth hearing from, though from State to State it can be difficult to tune into to.

A friend mentioned that that even the Simpsons lambaste Fox News. It is a disgustingly low level and far right organisation that has a frighteningly high USA following.