American news channels have a well deserved criticism. The most watched channel is the right wing hack that is Fox "News", which has less facts than Jon Stewart's satiric show. Another problem is of course the lack of reporters. CNN & others, including most newspapers, have cut staffing over the years, spending more time covering entertainment & silly stuff, like Obama's birth certificate.
But if you want to watch an outside source there is another issue. Namely the lack of availability. Most cable companies & satellite operators carry BBC America. While this sounds good, the reality is very little news is shown. Part of this is the time difference. 8PM on the west coast translates to 4AM in Britain. Now while they could replay a news show from earlier, they prefer not to. Instead BBC America would rather show Star Trek TNG or a heavily edited rerun of The Tudors (a sexy Showtime series with fictional or just plain bad history).
So we go to the internet. Sad to say, the BBC has never allowed broadcast of their television newscasts to go overseas. Radio broadcasts, yes. I have never understood this. There are also multiple BBC news podcasts available on iTunes, but those are, of course, several hours old.
Then there's Al Jazeera. This Qatar based satellite channel is basically the BBC or CNN of the middle east. There is a feeling among some on the right that it is islamist or anti-american, a view expressed by George W Bush. But it's website is the only one with live TV coverage Americans can get.
You can watch it directly, or through a website called livestation. Interestingly, most anchors are British. According to Wikipedia most came from the BBC or Sky News (Murdoch's satellite channel), or even CNN International, another channel I wish was available in the US.
It looks a lot like what we are used to. Interviews with analysts, a rolling bar of info at the bottom, lot's of reports from different reporters. However I have noticed that if I watch too, long, I start to see the same report rerun. So apparently they show reports on a half hour basis. Still, I shouldn't have to go here. But I notice CNN showing regularly scheduled programs, partially because they don't have the people & have decided that Americans don't care. Well, we should. As for Fox: are you serious? They're probably blaming the protests on Obama.
But if you want to watch an outside source there is another issue. Namely the lack of availability. Most cable companies & satellite operators carry BBC America. While this sounds good, the reality is very little news is shown. Part of this is the time difference. 8PM on the west coast translates to 4AM in Britain. Now while they could replay a news show from earlier, they prefer not to. Instead BBC America would rather show Star Trek TNG or a heavily edited rerun of The Tudors (a sexy Showtime series with fictional or just plain bad history).
So we go to the internet. Sad to say, the BBC has never allowed broadcast of their television newscasts to go overseas. Radio broadcasts, yes. I have never understood this. There are also multiple BBC news podcasts available on iTunes, but those are, of course, several hours old.
Then there's Al Jazeera. This Qatar based satellite channel is basically the BBC or CNN of the middle east. There is a feeling among some on the right that it is islamist or anti-american, a view expressed by George W Bush. But it's website is the only one with live TV coverage Americans can get.
You can watch it directly, or through a website called livestation. Interestingly, most anchors are British. According to Wikipedia most came from the BBC or Sky News (Murdoch's satellite channel), or even CNN International, another channel I wish was available in the US.
It looks a lot like what we are used to. Interviews with analysts, a rolling bar of info at the bottom, lot's of reports from different reporters. However I have noticed that if I watch too, long, I start to see the same report rerun. So apparently they show reports on a half hour basis. Still, I shouldn't have to go here. But I notice CNN showing regularly scheduled programs, partially because they don't have the people & have decided that Americans don't care. Well, we should. As for Fox: are you serious? They're probably blaming the protests on Obama.
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