Level of Interest
I’ve had numerous discussions down here about issues that Australians were shocked to find Americans don’t know about.
Australia’s deadliest killing spree at Port Arthur? I’d never heard of it.
APEC? A bunch of people I’ve talked to back home don’t know what it is, let alone that it happened.
How, several Aussies have remarked to me, is it possible that Americans don’t know about these important events happening around the globe? I mean, the Virginia Tech shooting was big news down here, how could the 35 dead and 37 injured at Port Arthur have escaped notice in the US?
Unfortunately, I have to keep reminding people that it is because the United States does not care. We just don’t. It’s not that we’re uneducated - though some of us are - but that we have a massive population and de facto world domination. We make enough of our own news - we just don’t care about yours.
Case in point? Howard called the election yesterday. Everyone’s abuzz down here. And this is actually pretty big news for the States, since Bush seems likely to lose his staunchest ideological ally.
But, it’s not on nyt.com’s front page, nor is it in the print edition of the NYT (as posted on their website). They do have a Reuters story if you do a search - but they didn’t send their own reporter. Washington Post? Their site had nothing on the front page - and their registeration system is annoying, so I didn’t go deeper. Chicago Tribune? No. LA Times? No.
Only wsj.com (Wall Street Journal) had it on their front page. You could argue their impending sale to Murdoch makes them a touch more attuned to Oz politics.
Sorry guys, America doesn’t care if you elect Howard, Rudd or one of the myriad of cute bouncing animals we’ve heard about.
Those other two guys? We’re not quite sure who they are.
Sphere: Related Content
October 15th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
If you live in Australia, wouldn’t you be interested in the goings-on in the 3rd largest country in the world, which also happens to have the largest economy and military on the planet? (yep)
Now for us in the USA, should get get really excited about 53rd largest country in the world, which has the 13rd largest economy and 68th largest military? Sure, these spoke something that resembles English, but they’re on the other side of the world. There are a lot of important countries in the world, and they can’t all get time on the NYT front page.
I would consider Blair to have been Bush’s staunchest ideological ally, and it was pretty big here when he left office.
October 15th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
So, to sum up… you don’t care?
That’s my point. Australians I’ve talked to are frequently surprised that Australian news doesn’t rate in America. I was just pointing out that the most significant (though widely anticipated) political news story of the season barely made a blip on the American media radar.
As for the last point, you could probably argue it either way, but I think Blair was Bush’s most strategic ally - ideologically I think Howard is much closer to Bush than New Labour, either Blair or Brown.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
we canadians would never be so presumptuous as to assume that america would care about our goings-on. though, to be honest, i religiously read the news from canada and there quite frankly is so little going on, i can’t even be bothered to be interested. we middle powers are just too boring.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:35 am
yeah but all the aussies I talked to didn’t know a durn thing about Woody Guthrie or Towns Van Zandt, so go figure.
aww sarah, I used to listen to that News of Canada show on NPR on the way home from work till they rescheduled. So cute, news like a big boy country, once they interviewed a lady who had beer coming out of her water faucet! (that’s not a joke)
October 18th, 2007 at 7:35 am
They also didn’t know what australian for beer was, comon guys take in interest in your own country!