This spring, one of my local PBS stations has begun carrying the Japanese news: NHK “Newsline.” I rather like it.
I’m a big fan of the foreign news. In the 90’s I began watching the BBC World News regularly. The Philippine news was on, too, local and regional news broadcast in English for an internatiojnal audience, which was great as a reminder of what life is like for peoples living on less. I liked seeing Asian news through the filter of an Asian news agency.
The primary thing to remember about American local news is that it drives people toward greater conservativism. Whether intentional or not, the operating philosophy is: “if it burns or bleeds it leads.” And the natural result of that crime-ridden, sensationalistic coverage is that it makes people fearful; however safe their neighborhoods might be, the constant reminder of violence drives a cautious, conservative agenda. Whether conscious or not, it’s just human to play it safe when confronted with vivid, violent imagery, or the results of violence.
I don’t mean that in any sort of conspiratorial way, that the media moguls are in cahoots with each other, manipulating us. These decisions are made by thousands of different people in their local newsrooms, yet success is measured the same way by all of them, in better ratings. And sensationalism and fearmongering are news profit drivers, more so than thoughtful, in-depth journalism.
Watching the international news, however, you get some of the same vivid imagery, yet the newscasters are aware of an international audience, and there is more of an attempt to provide context.
I love the German world news for this. The BBC is pretty good, although my take on the BBC will always be colored by their obsession with Michael Jackson. When I first began watching the two in tandem, Deutsche Well and BBC World News, I really liked them both, except that the British had this fascination with “Jack-o” as they called him. Jack-o is gone now, but “the Beeb” still has more interest in the red carpet and Hollywood than the Germans do. Not that the German news isn’t as capable of focusing on Hollywood, they just have a little more remove when they report on it.
Every so often I stumble on “Russia Today,” too, another interesting take on world events. As much as cable TV means we get the same crap we used to get only 20 times more of it (and some of it much more noxious), it also means there are little gems out there waiting to be found.
I’m glad to see the Japanese news on Newsline. I’ve watched it a couple dozen times now, and I’m hoping it sticks. I’ve gotten a whole different angle, for instance, on the American base on Okinawa. Sixty-five years after the end of the world war, the Okinawans want the huge American presence spread around Japan a bit more. It’s led to political scandal and resignations. Here in the US, we hear almost nothing about it.
It’s great to have an Asian alternative again. Democracy needs an informed electorate, right?
OmbudsBen 
I tune into the French and German weekly round ups of news that are shown here on Saturday mornings, partly to practice my French and German and partly to get a different view on the world.
But NOTHING is as bad as Australian news, believe me. Dire.
Now you’ve got me curious, NR. How is the Aussie news bad? In the same way I describe our local news — too sensationalistic?
I’d love to see the French news. But they’d have to do an English version, and I’m not sure the French are ready to concede that much to the Anglophone world.
Oh, I’ll have to keep my eyes open for this. Looks really interesting. I don’t even know what channel to try, but I’ll do some research.
We have Comcast here in Alameda — not sure what you get out in Co-Co county. KQED is channel 9 for us, KTEH is channel 10, and KCSM is channel 17; so at 6 PM we get the PBS Newshour on channel 9, KQED, BBC on channel 10, KTEH, and the German news on 17, KCSM (originally for College of San Mateo).