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SofaGeorge
New member
Many of you know I had a foriegn exchange student last year, a young girl from Germany named Debby. (I've got another one this year, Sunny.) Last night I got a letter from Debby. She wanted to verify what French and German TV were saying about our news coverage in America. The European news tells its viewers that they are getting the "whole picture." While we people here in America only get half the story... the half our government wants us to hear. They are told we don't know about the large anti-War protests around the world, the civilian casualties in Iraq, the trouble this is causing with other Arab nations - you get the picture. They are told that we aren't getting ANY of the news we see every day on CNN.
I refered her to CNN's website. I also gave her the URL for the Internet Public Library so that she could see we had ready access to EVERY newspaper published on the planet (most in English versions as well) and I also listed a number of questions for her:
1. Did German TV tell them about Sadam gassing the Kurds? (NO.)
2. Any reports of Sadam kidnapping and torturing his own people. (NO.)
3. Has she read the Sports Illustrated article on their Olympic training methods? (NO. And this is a classic if you haven't seen it.)
4. Did the European TV news tell them that Sadam kept his scientists from talking to UN inspectors? (NO.)
3. Does German TV show them American news cameras covering the American anti-War protests? (Nope. Somehow only they know that 1,000 people lay down in the middle of traffic in San Francisco. We don't even cover it.)
The bottom line is - the world media buzz line is Americans' are very ignorant and we don't know both sides of the story. (I should compile an extensive list of 2Thick's post for her. It won't do any good to change the European view of us... but it will at least demonstrate to her that at least we have the ability to get alternate media views. We may not listen or believe them... but we can get them.)
I refered her to CNN's website. I also gave her the URL for the Internet Public Library so that she could see we had ready access to EVERY newspaper published on the planet (most in English versions as well) and I also listed a number of questions for her:
1. Did German TV tell them about Sadam gassing the Kurds? (NO.)
2. Any reports of Sadam kidnapping and torturing his own people. (NO.)
3. Has she read the Sports Illustrated article on their Olympic training methods? (NO. And this is a classic if you haven't seen it.)
4. Did the European TV news tell them that Sadam kept his scientists from talking to UN inspectors? (NO.)
3. Does German TV show them American news cameras covering the American anti-War protests? (Nope. Somehow only they know that 1,000 people lay down in the middle of traffic in San Francisco. We don't even cover it.)
The bottom line is - the world media buzz line is Americans' are very ignorant and we don't know both sides of the story. (I should compile an extensive list of 2Thick's post for her. It won't do any good to change the European view of us... but it will at least demonstrate to her that at least we have the ability to get alternate media views. We may not listen or believe them... but we can get them.)
