Re: Is the American approach to news different?

Description: Americans try to make entertainment out of news.

Transcript: Yes. In fact, the way CNN and Fox News report is very much, I would say, spectacular. They try to select a story which . . . try to present it in a way that’s breaking news that’s really breaking news. That’s really something which has a merit of intrigue as breaking news, and to try to make entertainment out of news. It’s clear to try to attract people and make them reflect about the event. But not all stories deserve this kind of priority our outlook, if you like. In Europe, maybe we have more of a cautious attitude to events. We try to crosscheck maybe a little bit more than the U.S. broadcasters do before presenting something as really important. And I think if you watch CNN International or Fox News International, affairs are very much Middle East affairs. Outside of Middle East, or maybe Afghanistan, of course, because of the terror, they are very much focused on that. But they don’t really cover the international political agenda. For instance, for a Pol, it’s not . . . priority one is not Middle East. It’s what happened in their own country. What kind of government are they going to have? Are they happy with Kaczynski Brothers? ________ with the Russians? All these kind of political background is not so much treated by our American competitors. It’s better treated by ______, not only because it’s in Europe, but ______ the rest of the world. I think we have more interest for political background, for historical background, and maybe less interest for “on the spot” events that our U.S. competitors have.

Question: What does that say about our respective cultures?

I think the U.S. is more of a consumer society than Europe because our history is more conscious of the historical and political environment, more weary of what may happen in other neighboring countries. The U.S., you are like in a “happy island”, you know? So you don’t need to know so much about what is going on in the rest of the world. And as a result, tragic events like September 11th cause . . . I think September 11th has very much marked the spirits here in the U.S., but it has created some kind of monopoly in its international news. You get . . . all of what you get is related to September 11th and to the terrorism issue. And there’s not much about other international political issues. Well in Europe, of course, we didn’t have September 11th, but we had some terrorist actions as you saw recently in Scotland and in London. So there is some terrorism, so we are conscious of that. But . . . and of course, there is something, we put it on breaking news and report on that. But we know that is a difficult background. And we know that this background is not going to be _____ very rapidly. And so our political agenda is not monopolized by that. We have a more diverse approach to international news, and we try to cover more international political stories, I would say.

Recorded on: 7/2/2007 at The Aspen Ideas Festival