BBC vs CNN

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
#1

Seriously, when you listen to the BBC do you really feel you are listening to the best news source that the media has to offer?I mean be honest. Are you listening because,it keeps your reputation of having good taste in check? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

CNN offers news from around the world that ā€¦

(A) You can actually listen and,not have to drink buckets of coffee to maintain conscieness.

(B) Every last broadcaster doesnā€™t just change by name he or,she actually sounds different.

Ā© A sense of humor is not considered inappropriateā€¦

Itā€™s the 21rst century for Gods sake.Winston Churchill was incredible in his day but,itā€™s no longer necessary to be that seriousā€¦

Good grief,the ā€œGrim reaperā€ is more entertaining.Are you kidding me?

#2

[quote=ā€œDarkchildā€]Seriously, when you listen to the BBC do you really feel you are listening to the best news source that the media has to offer?I mean be honest. Are you listening because,it keeps your reputation of having good taste in check? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

CNN offers news from around the world that ā€¦

(A) You can actually listen and,not have to drink buckets of coffee to maintain conscieness.

(B) Every last broadcaster doesnā€™t just change by name he or,she actually sounds different.

Ā© A sense of humor is not considered inappropriateā€¦

Itā€™s the 21rst century for Gods sake.Winston Churchill was incredible in his day but,itā€™s no longer necessary to be that seriousā€¦

Good grief,the ā€œGrim reaperā€ is more entertaining.Are you kidding me?[/quote]

CNN offers news? I must have missed that bit. But then I only had it on for an hour or so, before I got sick to death of the constant self-congratulation, trailers of trailers, and endless commercials. Or maybe that WAS what passes for the news in the minds of the people who run their unedifying mission!

#3

[quote=ā€œDarkchildā€]Seriously, when you listen to the BBC do you really feel you are listening to the best news source that the media has to offer?I mean be honest. Are you listening because,it keeps your reputation of having good taste in check? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

CNN offers news from around the world that ā€¦

(A) You can actually listen and,not have to drink buckets of coffee to maintain [color=red]conscieness[/color].[/quote]

Because it attracts the more intelligent listener who can spell? :laughing:

#4

[quote=ā€œDarkchildā€]CNN offers news from around the world that ā€¦

(A) You can actually listen to and not have to drink buckets of coffee to maintain consciousness. [/quote]

I think you need something stronger than coffee to anaesthetize your mental faculties and make you receptive to the message being peddled by CNN.

#5

But apparently not necessarily those who know how to use a computerā€¦

#6

Are there any Americans in the house?

#7

Perhaps theyā€™re all glued to CNN on the box, and canā€™t tear themselves away to banter online.

But no no no ā€“ many of them (a majority, indeed) voted against having Dubya as President, so they canā€™t all be as stupid as that!

#8

Iā€™m neither Brit nor Yank, and Iā€™d take BBC over CNN any day of the week.

#9

While I donā€™t claim partiality in this argument, by any means, having listened to both over the years. I canā€™t stand the sheer volume of repeition now available on CNN.

For Godā€™s sake, in a half hour bulletin, you get the same story told three or even four times. And everything has the same story.
E.g. World News: Iraq
Asian News: Iraq
Business News: Iraq.

While I am uptodate on general current affairs, my memory skills are still at 37 fairly intact. I donā€™t need reminding every five minutes.

Iā€™ve pretty much given up on CNN. Their Asian News programs are just offcuts of the US news anyway, with a couple of local stories thrown in for good measure.

I donā€™t even want to mention weather or anything else.

I expect to be well-informed about a lot of things, not brainwashed by a few.

Kenneth

#10

By no means a qualified authority on this subject, I offer this as my personal viewpoint only.

As I said on the other thread, BBC domestic news, of which I mainly listened to that on BBC Radio 4, is a bit too provincial and politics-obsessed for me. On the humour front, it is in there, albeit of a rather dry, understated British variety.

I much prefer the BBC World Service news as being more international and, purely from a personal point of view, more interesting.

BBC TV news (the domestic variety; I havenā€™t seen BBC World but Iā€™ve heard itā€™s pretty dire) is not too bad but as with all TV news doesnā€™t have enough time to go into issues in sufficient depth.

In my mind, I tend to separate news and entertainment, which is why I find most TV news, and CNN in particular, a bit disturbing sometimes. CNN seems to draw its visual style from Hollywood action movies and we are given endless action replays of whatever is the current disaster or human tragedy. Of course we need to be told about things, but there are ways and means.

Darkchild, Iā€™m curious to know what BBC news youā€™ve listened to and watched, and how much. I fear that you may have been put off by the accents and hence missed what humour there is in there.

#11

joesax,

That may be it.It just seems so so so formal that itā€™s almost deafening.CNN may get a lttle "Hollyweird but,at least you arenā€™t left feeling doomed during and,after every castā€¦

#12

if you ever get nearer to america (like PI), watch FOX news. this is CNNā€™s domestic rival. in-freaking-creduhble. compared to these in-duh-viduals, CNN is heaven. CNN didnā€™t use to be as bad as it is now. They have had to glam things up to stave off Ruppert Murdochā€™s FOX.

where in taiwan can i access BBC? nantaoyuan cable TV sure doesnā€™t carry it (or much of anything else).

#13

And,skeptictank,that should tell you somethingā€¦

#14

Iā€™m American, and I prefer the BBC news.

Whatā€™s more, my parents, who are in the US, also prefer the BBC news. Itā€™s aired on TV against the local version of the national news, and they tune to the BBC broadcast every time.

But then again my dad thinks a lot. :laughing:

#15

dark child, please be more oblique.

#16

Yes, CNN sucks. BBC rocks.

Chou

#17

The shameless self-promotion and general smugness of CNN anchors leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Give me BBC any day.

And where does CNN get those freaks who do the weather? Last CNN weather report I saw featured a bungling obese black woman who seemed to have only the most rudimentary command of English. Hasnā€™t political correctness and ā€œdiversityā€ gone just a little bit too far?

#18

[quote=ā€œmonkeyā€]

Last CNN weather report I saw featured a bungling obese black woman who seemed to have only the most rudimentary command of English. Hasnā€™t political correctness and ā€œdiversityā€ gone just a little bit too far?[/quote]

I would categorize your remarks as racist, sexist and fattist, monkeyā€¦ :?

#19

[quote=ā€œAlienā€][quote=ā€œmonkeyā€]

Last CNN weather report I saw featured a bungling obese black woman who seemed to have only the most rudimentary command of English. Hasnā€™t political correctness and ā€œdiversityā€ gone just a little bit too far?[/quote]

I would categorize your remarks as racist, sexist and fattist, monkeyā€¦ :?[/quote]

Now who is it who labels others (Fred Smith, Jeffu) of being gay? :laughing: Sure itā€™s incidental that sheā€™s black; but her blackness is a fact.

#20

[quote=ā€œE-clecticā€]

Now who is it who labels others (Fred Smith, Jeffu) of being gay? :laughing: Sure itā€™s incidental that sheā€™s black; but her blackness is a fact.[/quote]

And so is your gayness. :unamused:

I guess you didnā€™t read the second part of monkeyā€™s post. Look again:

BBC, CNN, who cares? Theyā€™re both muckrakers.