Disbelieving CNN

If I had broadband, I’d find some links to document this, but all I can do at the moment is rant: CNN International is almost as bad as Fox in the US! For the past two days I’ve been listening to CNN report on the British troop withdrawal, and how much of a vindication it is, a validation of success. The Austrian news, on the other hand, is pointing out how stretched out the British troops are, and how politically unviable the Iraq war has become for them. There seems to be pretty strong agreement that the Iraq war is a mess that the US is only making worse.

CNN has -- like many such shows, I imagine -- an email response line, and they've been asking people whether it's "spin" or not, that Bush & Co. claim validation from the UK's move. Think about this neat trick: they've allowed as how "some" people might think this is "spin," but then only read emails that counter that argument, so it looks like the general public is happy that we're "winning" in Iraq.

It's no wonder that so much of the rest of the world looks upon us in disbelief. They get their own news media reporting one thing, and then the supposedly "international" CNN quite something else again. Maybe CNN is this bad at home, too? Since we don't have cable I only tend to see it in airports or hotels. But today this is just ridiculous! Even the ease of understanding that comes from a newscast in English is not enough for me to watch it. I'm back to struggling with the German of ORF1 and ORF2 (Austrian state television).