British Expatriate Network

I just read this interesting article on the poor state of network and cable news by J. Max Robins. It's his opinion that the news on television is in deep doodoo.

http//www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA628823.html?referral=SUPP

Personally, I think whatever stripe you are the news just looks down right awful. Although oddly I've come to like Brain Williams alot more than I thought I would. Which still isn't much. CBS was always awful especially with a dishonest hack like Dan Rather on it. I personally was astonished by the amount of time CBS News and 60 Minutes had to apologise for making stuff up. I will watch Jim Lehrer, though that can be naff at times. The BBC World News on PBS is pretty damn good, but still, I want American news and the BBC doesn't do that well at all. CNN - Klein is killing it. And quite frankly I can't take much more of Wolf Blitzer trying to make every story seem as important as 9/11. ("Happening right now - man buys sandwich at local Subway!!!") Fox - Don't make me gag (I didn't know Bill Hemmer went to Fox?!). I hate Fox News with all my being. Brit Hume is the most unprofessional journalist in America. And Shephard Smith is clearly Satan - have you seen those demonic eyes? Bob Schieffer on NBC is what....146 now? NBC's Today show is hilarious - I like Matt Lauer but Couric is attrocious to watch. Lester Holt is good stuff tho. I cannot watch ABC - any network that can have Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer is clearly evil.

So that leaves umm....CSPAN? That's pretty damn good.

Shepard Smith is indeed Satan - he has to be the scariest, most insincere, smarmy car-salesman-turned-news-reader I've ever seen!



I like that clip of him reading the news on Fox where he is supposed to talk about a "block party" for Jennifer Lopez in New York and ends up saying "blow-job" - classic Fox TV moment!

I personally can't stand much American news, whether it is the so-called "giants" or the little local stations. None of them have much class, many of the stories are presented badly and few journalists have any idea of the concept of backbone here.

They all need to be sent for two weeks at the "Jeremy Paxman News Camp Workshops".

Oh yeah - my favourite bit on the local Fox news station is how it has a stopwatch running in the corner, in case you need to countdown how long the show will be boring you to death for.

Maybe we could all take a page out of France's book (not that I usually advocate that sort of thing). French news starts at a scheduled time and finishes when the news is done." Seems about right to me.

Basically no, I don't trust American Tv news, but maybe that's because it's not news, it's someones opinion. They seem totally incapable of just giving the facts. i stick with the Beeb.
I've been watching the round up of the failed bombers on MSNBC and Fox, mainly cos CNN is doing a lousy job, Fox is all opinion, and MSNBC is repetitive but the best of the 3.
Shame the BBC aren't covering this yet.

lol I tend to get my news from a number of places. Funny how the US press seems to think that BBC news is very anti american etc.

I get most of my news from you guys. At least that way it's unbiased opinion from frank discussion.

You fool! :o

They don't call me clever jack for nothing mrgreen

lol Do they call you clever jack lol

What do you know - Richard Posner wrote a (big) very goo article on it today for the NYTimes!

http//www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/books/review/31POSNER.html?ex=1280462400&en=4f8754ed897bdb1b&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Indeed, "they don't call me Clever Jack at all"

I generally get all my news online and I am in the age bracket quoted.

One of the main reasons for doing so is I don't have to sit and watch a whole hour of news just to get the bits I want. I don't have to constantly recycle a huge mound of paper, the majority of which I haven't read. I do, however, like news channel 12, the cablevision news channel and I do like our local newspaper, Newsday. Both report international news I feel just as well as watching the BBC news on TV and both don't make a drama out of a crisis.

As far as bias or not reporting the truth is concerned - the UK media are just as guilty for doing this as the US media. the advantage we have is we have seen both sides and more than likely still get to hear both sides because of our ties to the UK. the majority of the UK public, and the majority of the US public don't.

The only news american news show I watch on a regular basis, is CBS Sunday Morning. Osgood delivers every week, the articles are diverse and presented in a more human fasion, as for the reports from Bill Geist they are a hoot.

I find TV news most limited and tend to get my news online if anything just to get the facts without all the BS.

Why do you think it's called programming?

I get my news mopstl;y from the internet ,you can more then the 2 min sound bite that the tV news channels churn out between hours of adds .
You get opposing views and you have a base you can record and digest at your leasure.


Pretty much the only thing tv news stations get right are the sports results and they have been known to screw them up as well .

I dont buy newpapers I read them online and compare the versions given by the differant media to help form my opinion on the subject .