The Economist--Best News Ever or Best of a Bad Lot?

The postings about the Economist triggered an avalanche of messages expressing anger at the covering of the news in the press and on TV. Paul Simon says of the Economist: "I subscribe to it myself and think it is the best news magazine out there. That said, there is a huge amount of room for improvement." I select the highlights from his message. My replies are given in brackets. Paul says: "For one, the Economist is stridently, almost obstreperously anti-American, and the tone has steadily worsened in recent years. I can only imagine the Schadenfreude, snippy little comments and nasty digs we may see in the coming months if the US economy slows enough to justify their seven years of doomsaying. " [Good Lord, no! You are overly sensitive. It is essentially pro-American. The essence of WAIS is to understand how other people see the world and us.] "Biggest gripe: Knee-jerk reaction that globalization and free trade will cure everything, always. Recent pathetic piece on New Zealand was a good example". [Actually, the Economist has published some very balanced articles on globalization It does in general support free trade, but that position is tenable and is part of its tradition].

"IN SUMMARY: The Economist is OK, but leaves a lot to be desired. Only the pathetic state of the competition (as you well-noted!) makes it seem so good. Time Magazine: Let's also avoid too many encomiums for Henry Booth Luce. His biased and deliberately erroneous reporting about the Kuomintang and CKS helped wreck China policy for a generation! (See anything post-Luce employment by Theodore White, Tuchmann's Stillwell and The American Experience In China, or S. Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty." [This is true. He was the spokesman for "the China Lobby", which inspired the "Who lost China?" witch-hunt, but that does not change the fact that his Time was much better than the present one] .

TV fares even worse than the news magazines. David Seckler chimes in "Has anyone noticed how the BBC Worldnews has degenerated so quickly in just the past few years? They've even added jingles between spots, spots which are now often pointless or idiotic. Where is one to turn?" I agree entirely. Competition for TV viewers is such that Germany's Deutsche Welle gets our attention with an awful cacophony. Mexico's Televisa has just started using a noisy introduction which forces me to turn the sound off. Spanish TV news maintains its traditional dignity, but for how long? Paul Simon piles fuel on the fire: " I, too have noticed the decline in Auntie BBC; and also in CNN: CNN international is now afraid to have anyone speak standard American English. In plunging off the precipice of P.C. pusillanimity, they won't even have Americans read news for the American Edition, which has also been made less frequent and moved to middle-of-the-night in Asia. I really like the extensive weather coverage of Australia. Unless things have changed since I was down under in 1998, no one there watches CNN, so who are they giving the forecast to? The news coverage has gone equally feral; fewer reporters on the spot, more "feature" stories repeated days on end; specials endlessly on travel, pop music, fashion, etc.what are we news hounds to do?" Perhaps we should blame the TV public, which shows little serious interest in the news. Thank God for C-Span.

It is interesting that WAISers' criticism focuses on the news magazines and TV, with no mention of the much-maligned daily press. which, despite its difficulties, is doing quite well. This morning I had a good talk with William Woo, for years editor in chief of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and now professor of communication at Stanford. He is organizing the session on the globalization of the media at the WAIS conference. We surveyed the daily press, which generally has maintained its standards. The major change is the development of the internet, which has ended isolation in the world. I was in Italy during the Abyssinian war. Strolling in the countryside, I stopped to talk with a peasant. He asked me "Is it true that there us a war going on?" Such ignorance would be impossible today.

Ronald Hilton - 1/12/01