BBC Bringing 'Sophisticated' News to America

real clear politics ^ | June 06, 2006 | Gerard Baker

[NZerFromHK]

Deutsche Welle, ironically, fits more the bill of being more impartial. The BBC is becoming US-MSM-ized for quite some time.

You only need DW-World and FNC to get the two sides of news from TV, and evaluate them on your own.

[NZerFromHK]

I recommend watching Deutsche Welle instead of the Beeb. It has much the same breadth of international coverage as the BBC, and yet it is more objective when it comes to the US news (eg they do report on Red State Americans unlike the BBC who treats heartland America as if it doesn't exist unless a tornado or fundamentalist Mormons is in the news).

That, coupled with Fox News to moderate what you watched on DW-TV, would be good enough for your TV news intake.

[mgstarr]

Personally I welcome the BBC entering the fray. Fox needs to step it up a few notches and maybe this will spur them to focus more internationally. Don't get me wrong, I love Fox News but they've slacked off.

As a true capitalist, I encourage competition at any time.

[toddlintown]

Is sophisticated like communistic?

[miss marmelstein]

Oh yeah? Just tell me how much ordinary Italians or middle-class Brits knows about the U.S.? I'm embarrassed at my well-heeled Italian relatives lack of interest in not only the U.S. but every other country and region EXCEPT the one in which they live. And I have a friend who is a school teacher in Bristol, England. He recently told me he thinks Washington, D.C. is in New England. From my fairly constant trips to the UK and Europe, I don't find any of this unusual.

ALL people are inwardly directed.

[gcruse]

I'd heard of Americans abroad in Europe with Canadian flags on their backpacks as some sort of protective coloration.

Then I heard that as far as Europe is concerned, Canada and the US might as well be the same country.

Heh. Those unprovincial elites like me and thee can only roll our eyes.

[NZerFromHK]

I have the same experience here in New Zealand. In this country LA is regarded as a refuelling town for Air New Zealand flights enroute to Old London Town. Even New York can sound flyover city in Kiwis' eyes. The only country that matters to them beyond Australia and the (South) Pacific is Britain and perhaps bits of Europe.

[miss marmelstein]

I just caught the "bible bashers" quote in the BBC comments. The author meant "bible thumpers" but of course, being a sophisticated, elite European, didn't know the correct American colloquialism.

What a jerk!

[NZerFromHK]

And the Euros do regard the US as punching above its weight. I think they still believe it "should stay in Australia's league - friendly, remote, but pretty unimportant regional power".

[gcruse]

I love down under.  AAMOF, I wrote this earlier today.  You might enjoy my probably misapplied slang.

[AmericanInTokyo]

American TV news (especially MSM) is woefully boring and unsophisticated if you ask me. They purposely play down to an ever increasing dumbed down mass audience. It's symbiotic. The dumbed down audience demands for it to even be more more simple, and the MSM response is to downgrade it a notch or two even more so. BBC is not much better.

I could NEVER protect or stand up for the American MSM in a public forum with a straight face nor an honest heart.

[miss marmelstein]

I love the image of LA as just a refueling town! Wait till I tell my brother who thinks LA is the center of the universe. (He doesn't travel much either!)

[ChadGore]

Re: Just like with CNN, the BBC believes that if you have newscasters who talk with a english accent and wear glasses, it's supposed to make the news automatically more intelligent.

. . and if only they could find a kid in his 20s with grey hair it would lend credibility on camera.

The very definition of style over substance.

[Dead Dog]

LOL. Most Euro's I know are ignorant fools. And one common denominator is that they all watch BBC.

Most Euro's I know are educated fools. And one common demominator is that they all watch BBC. :)

As Reagan said, it isn't that they (Euros) are ignorant, they just know a lot of things that simply aren't so.

[billbears]

I'll give Welle a shot. However I'm not looking to hear about heartland America. I grew up in it and I know the views already. I'm looking for news, not to hear what I grew up hearing parroted by a newscaster. And I do not watch Fox, except for a minute or so when I get home in the evenings.

[Old Professer]

I got lost in the manger, way back near the beginning...

[NZerFromHK]

I just caught the "bible bashers" quote in the BBC comments. The author meant "bible thumpers" but of course, being a sophisticated, elite European, didn't know the correct American colloquialism.

That's lame. It also demolishes their own argument of how pervasive American popular culture is. Had it been so, they would have known what "bible thumpers" and "bible bashers" mean.

The Euro elites are basically well-informed in one sense: they know fellow elites from around the world very well. But couldn't really care less about their poor Joe neighbiours.

[Cementjungle]

I get BBC America on satellite, and while they are indeed biased it is sometimes nice to get a little news from outside this country (and something other than missing girls in Aruba).

Our news shows in the US don't exactly cover much outside the US (unless it's a missing girl in Aruba).

[NZerFromHK]

I can't remember how many Kiwis I have met or known who can't even place Chicago (the one in Illinois) on the map LOL. The US is just a very mysterious, remote, and unrelated country to many of them - a lot more than even Canada.

[Jameison]

"You're probably referring to one incident on one naval ship that was reported where the crew had the Sky News feed substituted for the BBC news feed, which was partially in response to a BBC story about an incident involving the ship that the crew felt portrayed them unfairly."

He probably was:

"Americans weren't the only ones to drift away from the BBC. Krugman Truth Squad member Matthew Hoy reminded us on his blog, Hoystory.com, that the "crew of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal turned off the BBC and switched to Rupert Murdoch's Sky News." That's right, the same Rupert Murdoch whose News Corporation owns Fox. Hoy continued: "According to a 'senior rating' on the Ark Royal: 'The BBC always takes the Iraqis' side. "

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin051403.asp

That should tell any American all they need to know about the rabid BBC aka British BS Corporation.
The BBC were a disgrace during the Iraq War.
They are still a disgrace today.