[KevO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nuhax', 'T')his is just another ploy by Democrats to capitalize on Bush's current low approval ratings. The memo is a non-issue in the US. Who cares whether he made up his mind or not at that poin--does it really matter? There were more than enough reasons to go into Iraq pre and post 9/11.

[KevO]

more coming out now.
Looks like the US and the UK are about to fall out which would leave the US isolated from every country on earth.

I was recently in Mexico and not only did the Mexicans have utter contempt for Americans, the holidaying Brits did to........ and that's new.
Traditionally Brits admired Yanks but now they seem to hold them in the same regard as they do Germans!! This is a sea change and brought about by the Bush administration's stance on Iraq and Climate Change.

This news will further widen the gap as it will make Brits will feel morally superior


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8272787/site/newsweek/

[nuhax]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KevO', '
')You're a fascist aren't you?
A neocon.
There were no reasons to go into Iraq other than to set up a 'police station' in the middle east - you dick

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KevO', '
')I was recently in Mexico and not only did the Mexicans have utter contempt for Americans,/

[Free]

It's funny I just talked to an American (about 40 years old) a few weeks ago, who for the first time in his life has left the US, and he said it opened up a whole new world for him. One thing he particularly noticed how much news there was here, and that in the US there were no news at all....

That's what surprises me so much, not that the politicians don't do anything to clean the house, it's like that in every country in the world. But that the big media don't even mention a huge story like the downing street memo for example, which could hurt those in power. Hello, this is meant to be the original country of "freedom of speech"?
I was also disgusted about the latest "Times" article which basically justified torture of the worst kind.

[KevO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nuhax', '[')
I like how your sig is a quote from one of the neocons oil advisers/strategists (Matthew Simmons). You seem a little off-talking points with that one.

[LadyRuby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') was recently in Mexico and not only did the Mexicans have utter contempt for Americans, the holidaying Brits did to........ and that's new.
Traditionally Brits admired Yanks but now they seem to hold them in the same regard as they do Germans!! This is a sea change and brought about by the Bush administration's stance on Iraq and Climate Change.

[hull3551]

This is a good post. I find myself watching CSPAN more and more. Or going to the web. The Asian Times has always had thorough reporting on the global issues – especially China, Russia, India, etc. (www.atimes.com). US news (on TV, at least) is very little factually and mostly pundits speaking their belligerent minds.

Cable television is good any more for The Simpsons, Andy Griffith, Munsters, and South Park reruns. Quite sad. If I wasn't getting it for free, I'd probably push the TV back in the closet.

[Peepers]

I've become partial to Bloomberg and BBC America. Occasionally I'll watch Lou Dobbs on CNN, but he's getting into a rut with the illegal aliens coverage (an adjunct of the Exporting America topic). I would think peak oil is right up his alley -- few things export Americans' money like buying increasingly expensive foreign oil!

KJP

[nuhax]

I'm amazed at how anybody (whether American or otherwise) can claim a lack of news sources in the US... it's quite the OPPOSITE... In fact the US is the KING of access to news in quantity, quality and diversity.

Let's see...I'll start with 3 national cable 24/7 all-news networks (CNN, Fox, MSNBC + CNN international worldwide) + CNBC, Bloomberg + PBS, NPR + a lot of areas have either BBC or a BBC hour news program on PBS + radio talk is very popular + most cable/sat subscribers have access to independent international news... network news ABC,CBS,NBC...local news in every market even small towns... 60 minutes, nightline, 20/20 TV news programs... then of course you add all the newspapers not just the biggies NYT,Washington Post, Wall Street Journal but also there are thousands of smaller independent papers around the country... newswires like AP,UPI... and magazines-- Time, Newsweek, US News/World Report, the Nation, National Review,Business Week, Forbes tons of others...then lastly Americans are among the biggest political/news bloggers/blog-viewers on the internet, so right there you have thousands more channels of news and publishers. US book publishers are among the most prolific in terms of titles and books sold in the world for non-ficiton. Also documentaries are now becoming more popular on the big screen.

I'll stop there for now but I'm leaving a lot out still.

[angrysurgeon]

hey nuhax, the noise to news ratio broadcasted in the US media is skewed on the side of noise. Its widely known that if the watergate scandal would happen now in 2005,it would get a coverage of 2 hours in CNN but would be forgotten within the next few days or (maximally) week.

[I_Like_Plants]

And that long list of "news sources" cited are under the control of the same 3 people.

[Claudia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m amazed at how anybody (whether American or otherwise) can claim a lack of news sources in the US... it's quite the OPPOSITE... In fact the US is the KING of access to news in quantity, quality and diversity.

[Roop]

My job, official title "video monitor" is to sit a computer in a cubicle and watching 7 to 8 hours of TV news during my shift, picking out keywords and visuals for a news search database. I work for this video newsclipping service company that will remain unnamed. Mainstream American TV news, especially local TV news, is absolute GARBAGE. Among the local markets that I regularly watch are San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, Boston, and Philadelphia. Some programs are better than others but most of it is just poorly written, poorly researched, cliche-ridden crap. One of the worst offenders is this station in San Diego, KFMB. They are consistently incorrectly mis-reporting the news and basic historical facts, like on this past Martin Luther King Day saying that MLK was killed on April 2, 1968 at age 37, not April 4 at age 39 which is correct. That's just one example of many that I can think of. The mainstream US television media's coverage of world affairs and actual issues is a joke. It's all Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes, runaway bride, Michael Jackson, American Idol, reality TV, dog makes friends with squirrel, blah, blah, blah. One of the biggest jokes is their coverage of gas and oil prices. It's always the same thing, people filling their SUVs at gas stations bitching about the price of fuel and a profile of local pizza joint that will have to add a $1 delivery surcharge due to gas being so high. Boo-hoo. Re-goddamn-diculous, never any thought beyond the next fill-up.

Sometimes I feel like I need to get into another line of work. Fortunately Peak Oil should take care of that for me, when the economy starts to slip my job will be one of the first to fall by the wayside. Hopefully I can make it through grad school before that.

For my own purposes I get most of my news from NPR, C-SPAN, AP Wire, BBC, other internet sources, etc.

[shakespear1]

Roop

Yes, news media in the US is about as informative as watching the Simpsons ( the MTV couple ) and hoping to understand the world.

For me it wasn't until I started to watch BBC World that the reality of what was happening finaly started to come to focus.

I used to think that Washington Post and the New York Times could be counted on but that idea has been completely done in by watching them over the last 6 years reporting on the Presidential Elections and on to the WMD in Iraq.

[hull3551]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Claudia', '
')That's it. We don't lack news. We lack consensus news...

[nuhax]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Claudia', '
')That's it. We don't lack news. We lack consensus news.
(....)
The European countries I've lived in, on the other hand, always had one major news program that the majority of the population watched in the evening after dinner, usually broadcast on the nationally-funded public television station.
(....)
We simply lack a default, noncommercial, well-funded news source like many European countries have. Public television has The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, which I love -- but it's more like a university seminar than a general news summary, with endless roundtable discussions.

[Claudia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')laudia, I don't see the idea of "consensus" news as a plus, it's a minus.