I had to live outside the US for a few years to realize how inwardly directed our news is. American ignorance of what's going on in the rest of the world is a fertile ground for the jingoism that makes for the Ugly American impression both at home and when traveling.
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.