I first met Anouk Govil when he was studying with me in London and after college he invited me to spend some time with him back in his home town of New York. Since that trip I have been back to the US on a number of occasions and beyond all of the things that there are to see here, one of my favorite things to do is watch the coverage of the news. There is just something about the news that the Americans do so well and even if there is no news, the news itself becomes the entertainment. It sounds a bit geeky but if you have never experienced a day invested in watching the networks like Fox news and CBS, well then I would say that you have never lived, and here is why I love it so much.
Controversy
In the UK the majority of news readers are very conservative and they like to deliver the news in a monotone style, the idea is simply to deliver the news and then let you make up your own mind. Here in the US however the news channels are alive with all kinds of high energy interviews, controversy, personal opinions and fiery debates, and I absolutely love it. Fox news would be the best example of this and they have presenters like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson who love nothing more than ruffling the feathers of their guests and letting their political preference be known as they offer biased accounts of the latest news stories.
Behind the Truth
Something else which they do here in the US which I love is that they like to dig further than everyone else in their search for insider information which can get them closer to the truth. These guys are relentless and you can guarantee that if there is a story of a person who has committed a crime, that the news networks will already have that person’s best friend from school and their ex-babysitter all lined up ready to offer their take on events.
Information Overload
Watching the news here isn’t just as simple as sitting down and listening to someone tell you what has been going on in the world today, in fact at times it feels like a workout for the brain. There are all kinds of charts and blurbs that hit you from the side of the screen, the stock prices will be flying along the bottom of the screen like some kind of numerical attack and the news is always presented with plenty of infographics, there is certainly an assumption by them that they need to break things down in layman’s terms for their viewers.
I’ll be honest, there have been some days where I have stayed in my room all day and just ingested the news that comes out of these brilliant networks, which doesn’t make the best tale when I get home and people ask me what I did in New York!
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