The Daily Show finds that Time magazine’s cover stories vary with the different editions for the various regions of the world. This is not surprising in itself except for the fact that it seems as if Time believes its American readers are more interested in soft lifestyle features than in hard news.
This clip appeared on February 14, 2012. (To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
To be fair, that particular cover references a science story.
But, point taken.
…and science isn’t interesting enough for an international audience?
How about the other two examples Jon Stewart shows?
Or three more examples here:
Daily Kos
Or seven more examples here:
Business Insider
Sort of a People magazining of Time news stories for Americans. Pets sell and why have information on what is happening internationally?
It’s many years since I last visited the US, but on the occasions I was there I was always struck by how horribly parochial the television news broadcasts were. Many broadcasts had no foreign news at all, and when foriegn news was included it was only because Americans were directly involved. Recently I was browsing alternet.org and clicked on World and found the same thing. The rest of the world exists only in-so-far as it affects Americans. So I would suggest that the Time magazine covers reflect American cultural values.
Oh, this kind of shit drives me nuts. I’m not a Time subscriber, but if I were, I’d want the international editions and not the American ones. And I’m an American.
When I came to the US in 1983, I too was shocked by the parochiality of the news. One of my first acts was to buy a short wave radio so that I could listen to international news like the BBC. The Voice of America was not bad too. Now I listen to NPR but get the rest of my news from the internet. I don’t waste my time with TV news, either local or national.
This is exactly why I gave up on the American media. My Sirius radio is pretty much permanently stuck on BBC news.
The sad part is, the US media has dumbed things down because that’s what most Americans are interested in. Nobody here gives a hoot about the rest of the world, but damn do they want every detail about some scrawny Hollywood star wannabe’s teacup poodle.
…Huh? Are you replying to something you imagine I said?