Why do American news networks hardly ever talk about foreign news affairs?

I’d hit the edit quickly if I was you!

@ucme I didn’t see that. Thanks I needed to edit it.

Good job!

I don’t want to stereotype all Americans here but I was talking to one and he couldn’t name the leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, etc. He said I would know them as I live in Europe but then he didn’t know the leaders of Mexico, Canada.

I wouldn’t compare Faux News to the BBC. Seriously that is insulting to the British.

America is the only country that matters so why should she care about anyone else?

If you’re watching Fox news, well, you’re mostly getting entertainment. Entertainment shows don’t work in too much news, most of the time.

However, I’m pretty certain that even during regular news shows, it’s for the same reason that Americans don’t watch as many foreign movies or read as many foreign books. Americans tend to forget about that place out there called “the rest of the world.” After all (and I’m speaking as the devil’s advocate here), if you’re the Lord of the Manor, do you care about intrigues among the peasants? Most Americans seem to see themselves as being The Ones That Matter in the world.

@ragingloli
I am bias as I love Britain But the BBC is the best tv company in the world in my eyes and they have the best news in the world.

Americans are notoriously insular and nativist. That being said, New York is a very cosmopolitan city, and most ordinary people there keep up with foreign affairs. Personally I read foreign newspapers when possible, listen to BBC news, watch Prime Minister’s Question Time and CSPAN.

If you think Americans don’t know about foreign affairs, look at a thread about health care. They don’t even know how their own legislature works.

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer actually does a pretty good job of covering events outside of the United States.

All of the 24 hour channels are complete shit.

@Ailia A shining example of Americans insular attitude

American News Networks don’t give you the news. They give you entertainment in the form of minute-to-minute barely-informed commentary on “stuff that is happening elsewhere”.

@ucme That is exactly what I was aiming for, that and sarcasm as well. :)

Aha

This is why the love the socialist BBC they can make things such as Top gear that you couldn’t really make in America because you couldn’t give bad reviews on cars as they wouldn’t advertise for that channel. The same goes with the news, the news doesn’t have to make money it’s their to be fair and informative. (This is just what I think anyway)

@Ailia A perfect example of Poe’s Law.

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.

I can’t figure out a way to answer this without sounding condescending or an asshole.

@aphilotus That is very interesting and fairly accurate. Where did you hear about this law?

Whats america ? I have never heard of this place before. :O

@Ailia Here is a fun bit of info:
On Fluther the tilde ” ~ ” denotes sarcasm or a joke. It is a great tool and prevents being taken seriously for a bit of humor.

As an example ~ I think that my dog would make a great world leader.

Regarding the news in America there are some “World Report” news programs but you are correct- there is little reporting of international events on many news broadcasts.

@Dog Ah now that is something I did not know. Thanks for the heads up. :) I’ll remember that next time.

I don’t know if Americans knows less about international events because of this, but they probably know more about their own country, meh.

They are too busy with American affairs news. But i am sure that Tiger would share.

We’re all too much into ourselves to give a crap about the rest of the world!

On a more serious note, I get my news from many sources including the BBC.

One thing I’d like to point out is the sheer size of the US. I do think that if the US was smaller, and had more neighbors, that more people would be capable of casually acquiring knowledge about areas outside the country.

Dons flamesuit and waits for bashing

@gemiwing
But the BBC tells us what’s happening in America as well plus every other country so I don’t get your point.

@gemiwing Britain is a small island but you’d be quietly astounded at the degree of ignorance, despite the best efforts of the BBC, we have the BBC, Universal Health care, all though it is starting to creek and far superior television programs generally, but Europe feels like a different planet. And universal health care was a grudging concession to the working classes who fought for British Sovereignty during the world wars.

@mammal I’m not sure, since the age of the internet, that ignorance anywhere could surprise me at this point. sigh

First off, it’s Fox News. They claim to be fair and balanced but they cannot hide their Conservative leanings.

Second, news here is more about ratings than about content, so you have to show the audience stuff they care about or they will just change the channel. Since many Americans could not care less about the rest of the world, they don’t want to hear about it. (I could digress about how self-centered they are, but it’d take me too long to type for something so far off-topic.)

Third, many Americans are intellectually lazy, sometimes to the point where they are proud to be uninformed. This relates in part to #2 since they don’t want to fill their heads with “useless” knowledge. This also goes into why so many people can’t figure out computers, why so many people don’t read instruction manuals, why our math and language skills are so poor compared to the rest of the industrialized world, and many other things.

Because Israel does not want you to know about those events.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. American news shows stuff from overseas if:
It is a propaganda smear on the “evil doers”.
Some American was involved in it (usually if it appears their ass was not kissed)
It shows how Uncle Sam swooped in to save the day.
Other than that, as it has been indicated so elequently Americans are too good, great, awesome, <ahem> arrogant, to be bothered with the help…oops I meant the rest of the world that is not Israel.

Damn! I forgot that Israel controls Fox News!

Are you kidding?

God forbid if the general population in the US ever figured out that other healthy democracies had highly functional single payer universal healthcare with private healthcare insurance options, much lower liability and accident insurance for house and car, a mandated livable wage, five and six week paid vacations, adequate pensions, functional tax payer funded school systems from pre-K through PHD, and elected officials that were actually representing their constituencies rather than corporations—all while maintaining viable, competitive economies.

These crazy bastards might get it into their heads that they might want the same for all US citizens. How in the world do you expect this great nation to police the world while draining our treasury into defense corporations and a private banking system if we have to give it all back to the taxpayers in the form of programs that will only strengthen them and make them more intelligent voters? Are you f*cking crazy? No foreign news! Bad Socialist! Go to your room!.

…and now back to… The Tampa Bay Bucs took their first win of the season last night against the…

I’m going to second @gemiwing. The U.S. is, at times, like having 50 separate countries to keep track of.