Canadian media vs. American Media


Peter Mansbridge: Calm, Cool, Collected and Canadian

Its interesting how a sub-story of the Ottawa shooting has been the startling difference between Canadian and American broadcasting. I am unable to get any Canadian channels so I got all my news through CNN last night.

It seems like the American media thinks it is serving us well by bringing is a dozen "experts" who analyze every single aspect of a story down to whether the types of socks the shooter was wearing can tell us something about his religious identity. (i made that up - but wouldn't be surprised if CNN found some sartorial theologian who could make the connection).

This won't change how America reports the news - this is just an observation by american media on Canadian media. American news is far more obsessed with celebrity and dramatic "breaking" events than reasonable thoughtful observation.

Exceptions might be Meet the Press or 60 minutes that take a bit longer to tease out a story. But, the sound bite quick cut medium of reporting simply reinforces the superficial cosmetic culture we have all grown used to here.

Canada - keep up the good work. (and someone hook up cbc, ctv or global for me down here).

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