News-a-tainment - Between the two years I spent commuting and the now 7 months I've been living here in Canada, one of the things that still fascinates me is the difference in what and how American news stations present versus Canadians ones.

In the morning, I generally flip between CNN and CBC (the main national Canadian news station). Although they both might be reporting on the same news item, I end up coming away not only with different information, but with a different feeling. First, I find that I end up knowing more about the topic from Canadian news. It's made me realize how much American news sources leave out. Second, the "spins" are also different with the American news reporting, even from the more "liberal" sources (don't get me started on Fox "news"), being more to the "right" than the Canadian ones.

Then there's the issue of "balance." By this, I don't mean "right" versus "left." What I'm talking about is balancing stories that directly tie into the country versus reporting on stories that involve the other billions of people and places that share the planet with us. I've become so aware of how nationalistic even the "world wide news programs" are in the U.S. I probably hear as much about U.S. politics in Canada as Canadian but with U.S. reporting there is no such reciprocity with any other country. No wonder most U.S. students can barely find their asses on a map never mind some country where "those poor children" are starving and whatnot.

I'll be honest, getting to view U.S. policy through the eyes of another has on more than one occasion made me more embarrassed than I already am. I wish that the average American could have the chance I've had to step outside of the U.S. media machine and get some perspective. Maybe then people would be more appropriately outraged at what's going on in the world and the U.S.'s role in it.