Gah! I shouldn’t be shocked or surprised when our media provides yet another example of appallingly Americentric coverage, but I am. First there was the Greek bank strike, a bit of information I discovered only because I had to contend with a returned check fee from Greece, but now it seems that our media does not deem the Basque country’s efforts to secede from Spain as worthy of coverage. Instead, we get Michelle Kwan’s groin injury. Major sociopolitical upheaval in Europe, or pulled groin muscle . . . I can see the importance o’reporting scales wobbling there.
When I happen to catch snippets like these, I have to wonder what other huge chunks of global news I’m missing out on.
Writing Stuff
Received:
– 120-day “sincerely regret that we’re unable to accept it” from my Cricket editor. Encouraging comments as ever, but a “no” is still a “no.” Pook. 
She did, however, mention my blog, and put in a request for more Hobkin pix. As I am never one to deny an editorial behest:
Hobkin, curled up on fosteronfilm‘s lap, being a Daddy’s skunk.
One of the wonderful things about the Internet is how we can now get local news from remote locations, something that wasn’t true in the past (or at least not as easy). I routinely check news sites from all over the globe to find out what the real news stories are.
*emphatic nods* Boggles my brain how skewed my notion of the national (and even local) state of reality would be without other outlets of information.
I was going to say something to the same effect… just having a multi-national friendslist helps, because they often point out things happening in their corner of the world (and, sadly, they sometimes have better information about what’s happening in the US.)
Of course, in addition to having news sources pointed out, it also helps just to hear the opinions of others around the world instead of getting filtered data.
What news outlet(s) do you use?
as a former journalist………..
i exhibit no surprise.
To be honest, I didn’t realize that the Basques trying to succeed from Spain was news…They were blaming the Basques, at first, for the 3/11 terrorist attacks in Madrid. I’m not surprised by the early elections. But it won’t get them anywhere.
Pretty icon!
That’s too bad about the ‘Cricket’ rejection. Did they say why they couldn’t accept?
They’ve published a similar story in Cricket–a re-telling of the same Korean folktale. I knew it had long odds going in ’cause they’re currently overstocked on Asian tales, but I was hoping a Korean one (versus the Chinese and Japanese ones I’ve bloated them with) might squeak in. Alas.
Now I’m back to pondering Egyptian folktales . . .
Re: the foreign media. You’ve got to see today’s (that’s Feb. 12) “Boondocks” strip. You can find it here if your local paper (like BOTH of mine) is too chicken to run it:
http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/
Ooh. Egyptian folktales are cool. I’d love to see what you do with an Egyptian tale…
And who are we to refuse the editors such a delightful request?
😉
The average American is more interested in sex than politics, and thus would rather stare blindly at Ms Kwan’s crotch than hear about “those people over there”, and then be completely surprised and voice snarky comments about how “they’re trying to screw us” when Greek olives go up a $ a bottle, because they have no idea what’s happening in the real world.
That kind of media coverage doesn’t surprise me. Not that most Americans even bother to care, it seems. You’d be surprised how many people I’ve met who knew nothing about what’s happening in Iran, and that was all over the news.
I will have to widen my BBC skimming. I missed both those stories.
In other disturbing news, a story appeared in the CSMonitor about detainees who were innocent, but in limbo at Guantanamo.
Apparently five Uighur detainees, have been determined to be innocent but are being retained because the U.S. does not want to establish a precedent by granting them asylum.
Besides the Uighur detainees, four other non-enemy combatants are being held at Guantanamo because of human rights concerns if they are returned to their home countries of Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, and Uzbekistan.
In the end, most people seem to interested in local events and celebrities.
Awwwww, that picture made me say “AWWWWWW” out loud!
And hey, I love figure skating as much as the next person, maybe even more, but I don’t think MK’s groin boo-boo and withdrawal should be the Top Story Every Hour (on the hour). *sigh*
But warm fuzzy pics make me feel better. 🙂 (Enjoy the icon of my funny little Lally Bee dog, if you will… fuzz works in both directions, I believe.)
I think this “local-centric” presentation is symptomatic of all news broadcasters. Over the weekend, the New South Wales office of Australia’s national broadcaster was experiencing technical difficulties, so we got the Victorian news instead. It was quite eye opening to see all the Victorian issues being reported, and no mention of several hot topics here in NSW.
And I wouldn’t get TOO annoyed about missing the Basque coverage. We didn’t get it here, either. The Basques have been trying to gain independence from Spain since before Spain even existed. I doubt it will make major news until they actually succeed.
Shame about the pitch and know what you mean about news coverage; I wish I could say it was the US but my native England is as bad and Sweden is getting that way too.
Spooky what is worthy news these days…