??then we have to be quite worried. I am thankfully sheltered from CNN at home in London (the joy of terrestrial TV, and choosing your news sources on the internet) but come across it from time to time on my travels and never cease to be shocked what a heady mix of raw capitalism backed up by little journalistic skill can actually can lead to. I wonder what Europeans could really come up with if they put their minds to it?
Take this evening as an example. The microphone failed when the droning newscaster was presenting ???World News Europe???. The presenter on World Sport managed to give the impression that he did not know even any elementary facts about the sports he was presenting. Nauseating commercials from the CEOs of Intel and other equivalent firms speak of how the internet and wireless networks are ???great pioneering technologies for democracy??? when much of the world has neither wireless nor democracy.
The business news is presented with a spin that only share value matters ??? positive US employment statistics are presented negatively because the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates. Shocker! Add in some sickening self-effusive clips about how CNN has been shaping the news agenda, and presents the news from all sides (yes, well, providing it???s generally pro-US and/or pro-Western of course).
In short, CNN is not close to objective, and its elementary errors of fact and technology would put any European state-run or private broadcaster to shame.
Yet this mess of a TV station is the most prevalent news channel across the globe. This is globalisation I suppose, where business trumps over all else. I just wonder what might be possible if all of Europe???s state run broadcasters (BBC, SVT, France Television, ARD etc.) made some kind of joint initiative for a world-wide news channel, calling on all of their combined expertise and broadcasting in English and other languages where possible. It would surely be a worthwhile investment in geopolitical terms ??? reaching out with a positive, balanced, liberal and above all professional message.
