LOL -

I find it funny because day in and day out people in my office turn the television in our breakroom to local news and get sucked in to the drama that our local stations try and create over EVERY event. They watch it as if their life depends on it .

"Tonight at 10:00! Something somewhere could kill, injure, or otherwise offend you, stay tuned to find out how to protect yourself!"

After traveling to Europe for our first time, my wife and I got a taste of how one-sided and drama driven format that most of the American news broadcasts follow. I second the support for BBC, it's much less dramatic, seems more accurate, and you can get a much better perspective on what's going on in the world than by tuning in to your local news channel.

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Bad news is more interesting to (American) viewers than good news, and since all the media cares about is the # of viewers, bad news is what shows up as "news" thesedays.

After living here 10 years I still don't understand the news format here, soo poor. It's ashamed since this is the reason why most Americans are so clueless of the world they live in and generally have the wrong perception of other cultures, langages and geography.

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with what B-Line said and let me add that while pretty much the rest of the world (with a few exceptions) enjoys watching state-owned and operated television, here in the U.S. it's all privately owned and operated and definitely for profit! The General Manager of your local U.S. TV station (who is responsible for the local newscast) is a former salesperson, and 99% of them do not have any journalistic or on-camera background whatsoever.

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JV

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know...it's what we know for sure that just ain't so

This is all very discouraging news indeed. (pun intended!)

So what assurances are there that these privately-owned-and-dumbed-down news companies are actually giving us the most accurate, unbiased, "un-propagandized" news, if all they care about is first and foremost to increase their profits by feeding us just what we want to hear?

Since MOST (e.g., greater than 50%) Americans likely acquire their news through the "common media"; and since MOST of those Americans form their beliefs and therefore their political views upon the news from that "common media"; and SINCE this message thread has shown that we seem to agree that this "common media" is anything but a good source of the true nature of world events, then shouldn't one aim to NOT agree with the same political views that MOST of Americans subscribe to?

My point: when most of the country was (and a lot still is) so in support of George W's foreign policies overseas, and most of that support was at least strengthened -- if not spawned -- from the "common media" news, then shouldn't that imply that, more likely than not, even absent ANY political reasoning whatsoever, those in favor of George W are probably wrong, and that W's foreign policies are therefore very likely ... WRONG?!

And now perhaps we can return to: http://www.xoutpost.com/lounge/25661-war.html

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You're not seeing the same polls as the rest of us. I don't think most of the country is in favor of the POTUS's foreign policies. If they were, Dennis Hastert would have been in the big chair last night instead of Nancy Pelosi.

The real problem is that there are only a handful of Americans that are mentally on par with even the average European. They are just so smart, and know so much, that we gave up trying a copule of hundred years ago.
It's kind of like dropping the class in college that required a term paper, because you'd fail if you had to actually think.

I'm sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that Europe is 3,000 miles away, separated by an ocean, and about 1/2% of the US population has ever been or will ever go there. Also, I'm sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that, until the advent of the information age, over just the past decade, the world seem very large, and we seemed very far away from most of it.

Michelle, what is up with that avatar ?!

Couldn't agree with you all more, it is what feeds the masses, and why should they bother, so many states with so many local stories.
Try SKY as well as BBC, pretty good coverage.

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This is why I only watch BBC news and the Bloomberg network evern CNN and CNBC are full of shlock and bullshit these days

Yeah I am sad to say even CNN is just a fashion show every
day now. Its like your AM local news and sadly, totally
unbelievable.

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