Ain’t Nothing but a News Hound (Dog).
I’ve been a news hound at least since my student days back in the 80’s. Back then (in the ‘Age of Only Four TV Channels’) we used to hop from the 6 O’clock, to the 7 to the 9 and then 10 O’clock news. For one thing it was just interesting to see what the different channels reported on, how they reported each story differently and how some stories seemed to be in lock-step no matter who was reporting them. These days I get most of my visual news from the Internet – mostly from the BBC – but only the past few months I have become quite addicted to another news stream: American TV news from YouTube.
Now, I must admit that for a while there I was open mouthed with amazement at how different US and UK news are. I think the most striking aspects are just how noisy America news shows are with lots of people actually shouting each other down as well as how casual some US news anchors are compared to their British counterparts. But after the initial shock I actually started to find it all highly entertaining! What I’m hooked on, quite naturally, is all of the coverage regarding the Trump presidency and the practically hourly ‘Breaking News’ that seems to come out of the Whitehouse. Over the weeks I have even acquired a few favourite shows and ‘follow’ particular newscasters through their YouTube snippets. A certain spice added to this is that I’m increasingly recognising a group of New York Times journalists I watched reporting on Trumps first year in office thanks to the help of a four part documentary shown on the BBC a month or so ago.
I did make the mistake of dipping into Fox ‘News’ briefly but a quick trip to the bathroom got rid of that. Mostly these days I watch clips from CNN and MSNBC. From CNN I watch Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Wolf Blitzer. As to MSNBC I must admit to having the warm and fuzzies about the Morning Joe team who are often hilariously funny in a weird kind of way, plus Lawrence O'Donnell on his evening show, then there’s the energy of Stephanie Ruhle who is SO intense, Ari Melber who looks like he’s having lots of fun on ‘The Beat’ and no doubt lots of people on both channels I’ve missed out. Once I got past the fascinating cultural differences I was HOOKED.
Naturally I seem to have picked up, almost by osmosis, a much better understanding of American politics – and I thought WE were polarised! – as well as an introduction to some very smart cookies who have written BOOKS I can add to my Amazon Wish list: Lawrence O'Donnell, Richard Haass, Michael V. Hayden, Ronan Farrow and Jon Meacham. It’s been quite a ride and quite an education. I will continue to watch as events unfold and, no doubt, I’ll be reading up about American political life over the last 50+ years in my ongoing attempt to understand the world around me. So far at least it’s been a fun experience – for the novelty factor if nothing else.
5 comments:
you must have a large curiosity organ. we don't get TV and the only news we follow is from the Guardian!
Good choice. One of my favourite newspapers.
I literally cannot remember the last time I watched television news. Closest I can come is the Daily Show during the Bush years. I prefer reading the news -- The Economist and The American Conservative. The latter should be not misunderstood as something backing Trump or the GOP -- theirs is more of an old right approach, very much against foreign wars, very much FOR good urbanism, that kind of thing. I found them through their work on urbanism.
I've always like quality news shows - the ones that actually analyse things instead of just 'reporting' them. Seeing smart people discuss issues of the day was, I thought, a very good way to learn stuff. Of course you have to be sophisticated about it - looking out for bias and axe grinding - but that's part of the fun.
But if I want real *in depth* analysis I'll wait for the *book* in a year or two.
My go “stations” and websites are ABC, BBC, PBS/NPR, Vice News, Washington Post.
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