Then I guess the ratings must be good in countries outside the U.S. Bell TV, Shaw Direct, Rogers, and virtually every cable company in Canada carries BBC World News. I guess there's more demand for it up there.
Big International News But No BBC-World Or CNN-International On DISH
- Thread starter leegart
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Of course Canada has a much closer association with Great Britain than the USA does...
Exactly, the close relationship with Britain makes Canadians apt to watch BBC World News.
Equally a close relationship with U.S. has them watching regular CNN instead of CNN International.
It also helps that they don't have a really strong domestic news channels the way we have CNN/Fox/MSNBC.
The following concept is false:
- "News programs tell you what you need to know from what happened today."
News programs are created by a group of people who have a fixed idea of "news" and in order to get a job as a journalist, you have to have the exact same idea of "news" or it doesn't work. If you get a job assembling Toyota Camry's, you have to agree exactly about what a Camry is. The same applies to journalism.
This narrow focus works well for Toyotas, but has created weird results for "news". For example, in any given small town, if two cars crash, killing most of the occupants, that is not news. But if one block away, someone shoots someone with a gun, that is "news".
All the above was proven without a shadow of a doubt a few years ago, when, during a period where the 24-hour news channels did not have much that fit their weird definition of "news", a man in a small town killed his wife. There was absolutely nothing about the man or his wife that was different from millions of other murders and victims in any way. You cannot find any journalist or professor who would claim that the murder is news for anyone outside of the small town where it happened, and maybe not even there.
Nevertheless, one of the national media channels started covering the story, and then, like a pack of sheep, all the others started covering it. This shows that journalists are just a social group.
The punch line is that, during this time, I happened to tune into the UK version of the BBC News online, in order to find out about some local England story. I was surprised to hear " And in the Scott Peterson trial today... "
Sorry, but no channel will tell you "what is going on".
Did the BBC News or CNN International have one story about the housing bubble, about sub-prime mortgages, about credit default swaps, in 2006 ? No. In 2007 even ? No.
But there is more in-depth coverage about international economic news, issues between Russia and Georgia, the situation in Iran, the coup in Honduras, the political crisis in Japan, Chinese ethnic problems (need I go on?). Try to find much of that on CNN-Domestic, MSNBC, or FAUX News. Good luck!
Also, give your remote a workout and see if lack of popularity really limits carriage of a channel.
But there is more in-depth coverage about international economic news, issues between Russia and Georgia, the situation in Iran, the coup in Honduras, the political crisis in Japan, Chinese ethnic problems (need I go on?). Try to find much of that on CNN-Domestic, MSNBC, or FAUX News. Good luck!
Also, give your remote a workout and see if lack of popularity really limits carriage of a channel.
Issues between Russia and Georgia?!? My uncle's in the Army at Fort Stewart near Savannah, he'll keep those Reds out. I should tune into that... As soon as the Princess Amanda Jewelry Collection segment is over, I need to get one of those Coronation Dream Pins before they sell out... Is Nancy Grace covering that? If not, I might miss it...
I can guarantee you that the only factors taken into account regarding carriage of a channel are:
- Popularity
- Cost
- Requirements (i.e. requiring the channel to be in a certain package)
If BBC World or CNN-International were free to broadcast, like NASA or C-SPAN, they would be on Dish Network and DirecTV.
The fact that they are on neither should be a clue that the problem does not lie with Dish or DirecTV.
Actually, there has been more coverage of Iran on CNN than on BBC World, mainly because the latter is only 25 minutes long, and CNN often devotes a full hour to certain issues, such as Iran (note that is not in Prime Time, if you want news from CNN, you need to record the 4pm-6pm ET slot).
But you dodged my point, and you are continuing to follow certain news items because news channels say they are important.
And therefore, it could be included in an international news package which peoplem could pay a separate fee for. CNN-I, BBC-W, DW, CBC, ITN, ABC from Australia.
That's rather condescending. I follow news stories because I think they're important. Those stations cater to the desire for important news. I have travelled oversees many times. I can make judgments about what is important. Other viewers also. Give us a little credit Mr. kstuart.
You cannot make a judgment if you do not get the information in the first place.
6 Billion people are living 24 hours a day, so they are doing 144 Billion Hours of actions every day.
So, what you get on all of the media (including all other countries) is a tiny fraction of what human beings are doing.
You appear not to have read my longer post which disproves the concept that "those stations cater to the desire for important news"...
I appear to have read it and what you say is obvious. Every human being is influenced by their own experiences. The track records of these channels is that they do the best job of covering what many people perceive as important news. Other networks do a less good job. Of course there are no absolutes and no one is perfect. No one covers everything.
Your statement doesn't disprove the concept that some news operations are better than others and have a track record of making consistently better editorial decisions.
I stand by the fact that I have seen the best coverage from BBC and CNN-I. Your profound observations don't change that.
Well. I lost my favorite Euronews channel when 148w was taken down. Cannot get it in Alaska anymore since, I think it is on Conus beam only on 118...
