RAJESH WARRIER

See Both Sides Of The Story
Saturday, June 16, 2007

The timing couldn't have been better. My last post - "what a week" highlighted my displeasure towards news channels in US. All these years in the US I have been watching Fox News, CNN and some local news channels to get to know the news from different parts of the world. Here's how it looked -

Their reach was limited to the War in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Korea. Countries like Russia, India, Japan, Australia that existed when I was back in India were somehow off the charts the very moment I landed here.
News channels aired scores and snippets not from International sports like Soccer, Cricket, Tennis but from Universal games like Football, Baseball and NBA - winners claiming themselves to be World Champions.
Stories like Cat rescued by fire fighters, Tiger gives birth to a calf, Man sues laundromat for million bucks are prime time news and there's a panel discussing pros and cons of rescuing the cat.
Biased opinions and the opaque curtains denied understanding what exactly occurs (occurred) after an incident.
Witnessed accusations and verbal fights on evening news/interviews and most often the interviewee gave up while the interviewer made a fool out of himself in front of a million viewers.
Someone who's a Smoker is a big big issue (in this country?) and if that person happens to be a Presidential Candidate - then FORGET ABOUT IT. They will rip him apart.
Shows like O'Reilly Factor and The Situation Room try to add spice to a news that wouldn't appear even on Page 3 in other parts of the world.

Thanks to BBC World - they announced their entry to the States and that they would try to come up with the other side of the story. This would be great; at least one can get out of the monopoly prevalent out here.